Congress should lift limits on on buying catastrophic health coverage

A few months ago, I happily joined the ranks of the self-employed. I lost my employer-sponsored health insurance, but I hoped to save money by purchasing catastrophic plan coverage – very low premium, very high deductible insurance that would cover very expensive, unexpected medical care if something terrible were to happen to me.

No dice. The (supposedly) Affordable Care Act makes it illegal for me to purchase catastrophic, coverage because I'm not under 30 and do not qualify under any of the 14 "hardship exemptions" listed on HealthCare.gov.

Like it or not, the ACA forces me to pay much higher premiums for a traditional, comprehensive health insurance I don't want — a plan that provides many benefits that I don't believe I need and am willing to take the risk of not having.

This isn't just bad for me. This is bad for the nation. Millions of Americans like me want to buy catastrophic coverage but do not qualify under the ACA.

If the ACA did not forbid it, we would buy catastrophic plan coverage and each save thousands of dollars annually through lower premiums. We would invest this money or spend it on more goods and services. This investment and spending would be better for each of us and for the nation's economy than wastefully spending more money on health insurance coverage that we don't actually want.