WASHINGTON – The Trump administration took another swipe at the health care law Tuesday, proposing new rules that would make it much easier for consumers to buy less expensive health insurance policies that do not comply with coverage requirements of the law.

Under current rules, such "short-term, limited-duration insurance" cannot last for more than three months. Under the proposal, the limit would be 364 days.

The proposal was a response to an executive order by President Donald Trump, who said the change would benefit consumers because "short-term, limited-duration insurance is exempt from the onerous and expensive insurance mandates and regulations" in the health care law.

Alex Azar, the secretary of Health and Human Services, said that the proposed rules would provide additional options to people who could not afford to pay current health insurance premiums.

"Americans need more choices in health insurance so they can find coverage that meets their needs," Azar said Tuesday. "The status quo is failing too many Americans who face skyrocketing costs and fewer and fewer choices."

Short-term policies are intended for people who are between jobs or need temporary coverage for other reasons. They are generally cheaper than insurance that meets the law's requirements, but they offer significantly less protection to consumers.

Azar

Insurers often deny short-term policies to people with pre-existing conditions and can charge higher premiums because of such conditions. Short-term policies do not have to provide the "essential health benefits" that are required by the health care law. They may, for example, omit coverage of maternity care, mental health care or addiction treatment. Short-term policies may impose limits on the amount the insurer will pay, but they do not have to limit the patient's costs.

In addition, people who buy short-term medical coverage are not eligible for the subsidies provided to low- and middle-income people who buy insurance through the marketplaces set up under the health care law.

Three Cabinet departments — Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services — drafted the proposed rules after Trump's order in October, when he said he was saving people from "the nightmare of Obamacare."

"Today's action represents an important promise kept by the president," Azar said.

Many health policy experts said they worry that if large numbers of healthy people sign up for short-term coverage, it could drive up premiums for those who remain in the health law's plans.

"If the short-term plans are able to siphon off the healthiest people, then the more highly regulated marketplaces may not be sustainable," Larry Levitt, a senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, has said.

But Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said the short-term policies provided a useful alternative to costly major medical coverage that complied with the 2010 health law. Consumers, he said, need "more, not fewer, health insurance options."