President Trump took another step to cripple the ACA on January 20...
Last edited Fri Feb 24, 2017, 02:53 PM - Edit history (1)
President Trump took another step to cripple the Affordable Care Act on January 20 when he issued an order to halt $5 million in advertising, and outreach activities in the final days of the 2017 enrollment period. 1 The Washington Post reported that staffers at Health and Human Services protested because history had shown the advertising was necessary to prompt younger, healthier people to enroll, with the final deadline traditionally having been the second biggest enrollment day of the cycle. 2 Last year, nearly 700,000 people selected plans a week before the final deadline. 3
Former HealthCare.gov CEO Kevin Counihan predicted that the move could depress enrollments of the most needed customers by several hundred thousand. "It's counterproductive...To be frank, I think it's fairly transparent...I think the intention is to suppress enrollment...This has a material impact on enrollment." 4
Ben Wakana, a former senior spokesman at HSS, had this to say...“It’s outrageous. It’s irresponsible... They are deliberately undermining open enrollment to try to get a lower enrollment number.” 1
It simply amazes me that our President would take this step to sabotage the American healthcare system. Of course he is entitled to dislike the Affordable Care Act and want to replace it. But to purposely take steps that will reduce enrollment of the youngest, healthiest people that are needed to balance the overall risk pool is shameful. It is inevitable that this single action will help raise premiums in 2018, and help push insurers to withdraw plans in 2018 and beyond.
In fact... Marilyn Tavenner, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, predicts just that if the Trump administration doesn't provide greater assurances of future subsidies: “I think we would lose more insurance companies...and insurers would hike prices by perhaps 20 percent." 5
Whether they like it or not, the Trump administration and his fellow Republicans now own the responsibility for our healthcare system, and steps that decrease enrollment and cripple the current plans prove they care more about politics than building a viable system of care.
1 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-27/trump-administration-pulls-some-obamacare-ads-as-deadline-nears
2 https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/white-house-stops-ads-outreach-for-last-days-of-aca-enrollment/2017/01/26/a2f92682-e420-11e6-ba11-63c4b4fb5a63_story.html?postshare=2881485490750551&tid=ss_tw-bottom&utm_term=.a7962deeec5d
3 http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/27/news/economy/obamacare-ads-trump/
4 http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/27/ex-healthcaregov-ceo-trump-killed-obamacare-ads-to-suppress-enrollment.html
5 https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/health-insurers-warn-of-wider-defections-from-aca-marketplaces-for-2018/2017/02/01/c507ec78-e807-11e6-bf6f-301b6b443624_story.html?utm_term=.1877761feb85
