Biden declares war on 'junk' health insurance that Trump backed

President Joe Biden has declared war on 'junk' health insurance policies and will announce new rules he's proposing in a speech Friday afternoon in the East Room. 

The White House is taking aim at short-term health insurance policies that former President Donald Trump touted as 'much less expensive health care at a much lower price.' 

However, those plans often don't provide comprehensive coverage, won't cover pre-existing conditions, don't cover prescription drugs and have saddled patients with thousands of dollars in medical bills. 

'We know healthcare costs can be a real economic stress for families,' White House Domestic Policy Adviser Neera Tanden told reporters on a call Thursday night. 

The announcement is part of a broader plan to curb household costs, as inflation has taken a toll on Americans' pocketbooks - and on the president's poll numbers. 

President Joe Biden, photographed speaking in South Carolina Thursday, will deliver a speech Friday afternoon on how his administration is going after 'junk' short-term health insurance plans

The Biden White House has also gone after excess fees charged by airlines, hotels and banks. 

The so-called 'junk' insurance rules changed under Trump, who had wanted Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act - the 2010 watershed healthcare bill dubbed 'Obamacare' - but was thwarted by Republican Sen. John McCain in July 2017. 

One of McCain's reasons for preserving Obamacare was that Republicans hadn't come up with a way to replace it. 

Cut to 2018 and the Trump administration worked to change the rules so that Americans could buy cheaper, short-term plans - meant to last three months - and keep them longer. 

The idea was that these plans were not bound to the strict rules of the ACA, so the move was a work-around since Trump didn't have the votes in Congress to repeal Obamacare. 

'Short term plans are intended to provide temporary coverage as people transition from one source of coverage to another like when we're between jobs,'  Tanden explained. 

Former President Donald Trump, seen campaigning last weekend in South Carolina, had wanted to repeal Obamacare but didn't have the votes in Congress, so made tweaks to short-term insurance plans

'Under the previous administration, however, companies were allowed to take advantage of loopholes and sell what we call junk insurance for much longer than intended - up to three years,' she noted. 

White House officials said on the call that those who currently have short-term plans would be able to keep them - and that the rule would impact sales of new plans. 

Patients would also be made aware that their insurance was considered a 'junk' plan.   

The Biden administration is also going after third-party medical credit cards, launching an intragovernmental probe into the emerging practice, Tanden said.