In response to Trump’s ongoing threats to sabotage state health insurance markets, Bridge Project is releasing a new report detailing the potential consequences of the Administration’s behavior and the fallout that awaits the Republican Party if the President follows through on his plans. Additionally, Bridge Project is launching a digital ad blitz that will demand Republican members of congress stand up to Trump on behalf of the millions of people who could potentially lose their coverage or be forced to pay higher premiums if the President acts on his threats. The campaign will hold Republicans accountable for sabotaging current law in the interest of their partisan agenda.
To read the new report, click here.
The view the new digital ad, click here.
“Make no mistake about it: Donald Trump is trying to sabotage state health insurance markets and force premium spikes so he can ultimately leverage the chaos to cut taxes for the rich,” said American Bridge Vice-President Shripal Shah. “Undermining the stability of our healthcare system because Trump and his party leaders can’t get their act together is not a solution, and if he follows through, the country will hold Republicans accountable for not stopping him.”
For months, Trump’s Administration has worked to sabotage the Affordable Care Act in an attempt to leverage support for Trumpcare, driving up insurance prices for working people in the process and accidentally acknowledging that Trumpcare would never generate necessary support on its own merits. Trump’s previous threats to withhold Cost Sharing Reduction payments plunged insurance markets across the country into such great uncertainty that America’s doctors, healthcare providers, health insurers, and even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce directly appealed to Trump to guarantee these funds would be safely delivered. Trump disregarded pleas from experts, and after last month’s Affordable Care Act vote failed in the Senate, he and his administration are reiterating their threat to end the CSR payments, which the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates would cause premiums to increase by 19%. What’s more, this comes as insurers are restoring coverage to some challenged Affordable Care Act marketplaces in states like Ohio – which Trump’s threats would also jeopardize.
Polls show that if Trump followed through on his threat to sabotage insurance markets, the American people already know exactly whom to blame: the president, and Republicans in Congress.
Nearly every Republican Senator and House member has now voted for extreme, partisan Affordable Care Act replacement or repeal bills that would have given new tax benefits to the rich while taking health coverage from over 20 million Americans as well as imposing skyrocketing costs on those lucky enough to keep their insurance. By all measures these Trumpcare proposals were extraordinarily unpopular with the American people, and Bridge Project will work to ensure that they define Donald Trump’s presidency as well as the Republicans in Congress who voted to rubber stamp them.
The Trumpcare debate decisively revealed Donald Trump’s true colors. Despite his campaign pledges to cover “everybody,” reduce healthcare costs, “save” Medicaid “without cuts” and maintain protections for Americans with preexisting conditions, he entered the White House and instead went all-in on plans that would have done the opposite, hurting working families while creating new tax breaks for the rich.