Prognosis

Health Plans Undercutting Obamacare Get Boost From Texas Ruling

  • Judge backs coverage of individuals who submit to web tracking
  • Manafort mystery lender is businessman behind one of the plans

    

Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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The U.S. judge in Texas who ruled that Obamacare’s individual mandate was unconstitutional has signed off on a kind of low-cost insurance alternative that could pull young, healthy people away from the exchanges and drive up health-care costs for those left behind.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth overruled the U.S. Labor Department’s objections to novel plans proposed by two would-be providers, including a small Georgia company that proposes to offer health plans to individuals who agree to have their internet activity tracked.