Trump says new health plans, not available until September, already doing ‘record business’

President Trump on Thursday touted his administration’s new health insurance plans, which aren’t available to the public until Sept. 1, saying they’re already generating “record business.”

Speaking at a roundtable in Iowa, where he was joined by state and local officials, as well as a few members of his Cabinet, the president highlighted forthcoming health plans that serve as an alternative to the ones offered under ObamaCare.

Trump said Department of Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who was at the event, “has come up with incredible healthcare plans.”

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“Alex, I hear it’s like record business that they’re doing,” Trump said of the plans, which aren’t available for another five weeks. “We just opened about two months ago and I’m hearing that the numbers are incredible — the numbers of people getting really, really good healthcare instead of Obamacare, which is a disaster.”

The administration announced its association health plans last month. The plans, which allow small businesses and other groups to band together to buy health insurance, are part of a broader administration effort to offer slimmed-down, cheaper plans as an alternative to ObamaCare plans.

Trump did not cite any numbers regarding the health plans at Thursday’s event, while Acosta said he’d heard Iowa businesses are “putting those associations together.”
 
The Labor Department has said associations cannot establish association health plans until Sept. 1.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated earlier this year that 4 million people will join the new association health plans, based on the proposed regulation offered in January.