Selling Insurance Across State Lines
President Donald Trump said that by allowing insurers to sell plans across state lines, “your premiums will be down 60 and 70 percent.” We couldn’t find any study supporting such a decrease, and experts we consulted disputed the idea that overall average premiums would decline significantly.
The president made the claim in his remarks before a luncheon on July 19 with Republican senators to talk about legislative efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Trump, July 19: [C]ross state lines, where you have — where it’s almost impossible for insurance companies to compete in different states. … We’re putting it in a popular bill, and that will come. And that will come, and your premiums will be down 60 and 70 percent. People don’t know that. Nobody hears it. Nobody talks about it. … We’re going to have to cross state lines … and you’ll have insurance companies bidding, you’ll have forms of insurance that you don’t even know about right now, because that’s the way it works. There’s going to be tremendous competition.
We asked the White House for support for the president’s claim, but we did not receive a response. We
