Trump administration takes ACA sabotage campaign to a new level
Trump administration takes ACA sabotage campaign to a new level
By Steve Benen 09/01/17 08:00 AM
On Wednesday, the Trump administration refused to say if it would “promote enrollment this fall under the Affordable Care Act or pay for the activities of counselors who help people sign up for coverage.” Donald Trump and his team, an official told the New York Times, are only willing to do “the minimum necessary to comply with the law.”
Last year, the officials said, the Obama administration spend about $100 million on educating Americans about their health insurance choices and urging them to enroll. This year, HHS will spend just $10 million.
Additionally, HHS will severely cut back funding for hundreds of navigator groups across the country who provide in-person assistance to people signing up for health insurance, making the grants conditional on how many people each group signed up last year.
Everything HHS said yesterday pointed to a deliberate campaign to undermine the Affordable Care Act. The deadline for enrollment, for example, has been moved up – something many consumers may not know and are less likely to hear about because the administration doesn’t intend to make much of an effort to tell them. We also learned yesterday that the promotional money Trump’s HHS will spend will focus on online ads, text messages, and emails – but nothing on television or billboards, which reach a broader number of people.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-administration-takes-aca-sabotage-campaign-new-level
