Giving Compass' Take:

· Kaiser Health News explains that marketplace subsidies for healthcare plans may be an option in 2020 with the creation of a new waiver under the Trump administration.

· How will this affect the way consumers choose healthcare plans? 

· Interested in learning more about US healthcare? Check out this page and stay up to date with health care and reform.

States would be able to use federal funding to provide subsidies to people buying short-term health insurance policies, which typically don’t provide comprehensive coverage, under guidance released by the Trump administration.

The new policy could begin taking effect in 2020. It would allow states to ask for waivers from Affordable Care Act provisions governing not only subsidies that help pay for premiums, but also the benefits insurers must include in plans offered on the federal marketplace to consumers buying their own coverage.

The announcement came two weeks before the crucial midterm Election Day as health care tops voters’ list of concerns.

States were asking for more flexibility, said Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). This approach would allow the states “to provide consumers plan options that best meet their needs, while at the same time ensuring that those with preexisting conditions retain access to the same coverage as today,” she said.

Read the full article about marketplace subsidies by Phil Galewitz and Julie Appleby at Kaiser Health News.