...Wayward cites to a detailed response to a single line in a speech (which may or may not be actually correct), even though a speech is of necessity short and wouldn't cover all of those points...
I'm sorry, Seriati, but what part of Trump's line was a completely and entirely untrue did you miss?
The part where your citation actually proved any of it was untrue. You seem to have missed that Trump was discussing in a speech a CEO level discussion, an agreement in principle. Implementation is the step that follows, not the step that proceeds that agreement. Since that speech, you've seen more and more of the steps being implemented, including in Friday's press conference (which, by the way if you missed it, was phenomenal and should have been what happened instead of the speech).
But even based on what he said, the analysis is poor in the passage you cited. Trump said:
quote]Earlier this week, I met with the leaders of health insurance industry who have agreed to waive all copayments for coronavirus treatments, extend insurance coverage to these treatments, and to prevent surprise medical billing.[/quote]
Waive copayments, for treatment. You can look for yourself:
https://www.ahip.org/health-insurance-providers-respond-to-coronavirus-covid-19/. It's pretty expansive, with most all health insurance companies agreeing to waive copayments and sometimes any fee sharing on testing for coronavirus - you have to understand of course that when you include self insurance (most corporate plans), we have tens of thousands of plans. Cost sharing is different from co-payment and most fact checkers (your included) pretended they were the same to say that cost sharing would not be waived. Some did waive all co-pays, but he didn't say that treatment was free or that deductibles were waived or co-insurance was waived, he said co-pays.
On this one, I think your article and the "fact checkers" are more misleading than he was. And that's before we even consider what his CEO level conversation may lead to in the future.
Extend insurance coverage to treatments. This seems to be 100% the case. Doesn't mean its free, just means it's not excluded from coverage.
Prevent surprise billing. This one seems like signalling, that surprise bills will get the hammer from regulators. I think that's very easily a message that could have been agreed in a CEO conference and very likely will be implemented going forward, however, with 10's of thousands of separate plans there will be cases that have to be addressed.
So what did they quibble:
As Vice President Mike Pence stated more accurately, the insurers agreed to cover coronavirus testing with no cost sharing — so no co-pays or deductibles.
Pence made it clear it was to testing only (which isn't true either if you follow the link, as some company plans may still apply co-pays and some plans will waive co-pays in larger amounts of areas) and deductibles (which Trump didn't even mention).
That assurance applies to tests that can confirm or rule out the virus, and doesn’t extend to treatment or to other tests that the patient’s doctor may order. Consumers should check with their insurance company because policies may vary on this. They should not count on the president’s word.
Lol. Yes, if you have non-coronavirus issues they are not covered in the emergency coronavirus coverage. Trump didn't say they were, neither did Pence. This is just a partisan dig, could easily have just left the last sentence out. But they go on to list out all the non-coronavirus things that could be wrong with you and not paid for by emergency coronavirus aid, as if it were relevant.
Then they point out that Federal programs literally match with what Trump said - but oh yeah once again they "importantly" point out that non-coronovirus tests aren't covered (nor were they ever, nor did Trump say they were).
When people get sick from the coronavirus, there currently is no antiviral treatment that can cure the disease. Instead, the current treatment is geared to relieving patients’ symptoms and helping them to recover. For those who are very sick, that can involve using machinery to help them breathe. Insurers cover such treatment based on the terms of the individual’s health plan, including any applicable deductibles and co-pays.
Yes, and some of those deductibles and co-pays are already waived. In this case, this statement isn't inconsistent with what Trump said, and if anything doesn't reflect updates that Trump was flagging.
As for “surprise billing,” that’s not something insurers can waive because they’re not the ones who do it. Doctors and hospitals generally spring those surprises.
This one is profound stupidity. Insurers do in fact have a lot to do with surprise billing. Almost everyone of those bills is triggered off a permission to bill the patient in an insurers contract with the Hospital. This one is so obviously a matter that will be the subject of legislation and regulation, and one that insurers are on notice is worth the fight.[/quote]
So insurers have agreed to make the test free. The rest is pure fantasy.
So again, pretty much it's an announcement that at the CEO level insurers are agreeing this is the path forward, its a bit industry though and there were not 10k CEOs in the room. It takes alot to implement a deal.
So that's pretty much why I short hand criticized you. You cited to a detailed write up that looked in bad faith to try and find fault with an announcement of top down agreement that still has to be implemented. They could have pointed that out, or read the actual announcements that are implementing it in good faith, instead they basically mislead everyone to try and undermine a fairly straight forward message.