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Consumer Groups Speak Out Against So-Called 'Continuous Coverage' Penalty In GOP Healthcare Bill

One of the provisions that the American Healthcare Act aims to remove is the individual mandate penalty from law and aims to replace it with a so-called “Continuous Coverage” penalty, and that has consumer groups speaking out against allowing companies to charge more to those who go without insurance.

In the proposed American Healthcare Act in Congress, Republicans pushing the bill want to get rid of the current individual mandate under current law and replace it with continuous coverage penalties which would allow insurance companies to charge 30 percent more to those who go without health insurance for 63 days or more in the past year for the first year of coverage. 

Elizabeth Hagan, Associate Director of Coverage Initiatives with consumer group Families USA says that unlike the current individual mandate that penalizes people for not having coverage, continuous coverage would penalize people more when they do decide to get coverage.

“This requirement is actually a mandate, but with a much harsher and longer lasting penalty that could very heavily fall on those with health problems, unstable employment, and limited income,” says Hagan.

The Congressional Budget Office’s recently released a report on the proposed bill, estimates that in 2018, 14 million people would be uninsured due to repealing the individual mandate.

According to the US Census Bureau’s Health Insurance Coverage report in the United States, in 2015 New Mexico’s uninsured rate was 10.9 percent down from 19.6 percent in 2010. 

Anthony Moreno serves as the Director of Content at KRWG Public Media. He also is host and executive producer for "Fronteras-A Changing America" and "Your Legislators" on KRWG-TV.