For his entire presidency, Trump has perpetrated a malicious sabotage campaign against the Affordable Care Act, increasing health insurance prices for the American people and forcing insurance companies to withdraw from some marketplaces.
Now, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has indicated that, if Trump follows through on his most egregious threat to Obamacare customers, premiums for benchmark plans in the marketplaces would spike by up to 25% in coming years, 1 million Americans would lose their health coverage in 2018, and in total the federal deficit would increase by $194 billion.
“This new report confirms it: if Donald Trump continues sabotaging the Affordable Care Act, innocent people will suffer from higher premiums and lost their coverage,” said American Bridge President Jessica Mackler. “Make no mistake – voters are paying attention and will hold Republicans fully accountable if they don’t act to stop Trump’s sabotage immediately. The country can’t afford the consequences of inaction.”
America’s doctors, healthcare providers, patient advocates, health insurers, and business leaders have all publicly urged Donald Trump for months to end the needless chaos he has created with executive actions and partisan threats to cripple the Affordable Care Act. And Trump’s sabotage is hurting people all over the country, like New Jersey residents who are staring down 22% premium increases as a result of the Trump’s sabotage.
Bridge Project released a report concerning Trump’s sabotage of the marketplaces last week.
Trump’s sabotage efforts have included threatening to cease enforcement of the individual mandate that is crucial for the functioning of the marketplaces, failure to run scheduled advertisements promoting enrollment in the marketplaces, the severing of relationships with nonprofit organizations that help enroll people in the marketplaces, and, most harmful of all, threatening to withhold cost-sharing funds that are critical for 7 million working Americans affording healthcare.
Independent experts have also demonstrated that Trump’s sabotaging of Affordable Care Act marketplaces – and his threats to escalate those efforts – are the leading causes of health insurance premium hikes taking place across the United States and burdening Americans with new, completely artificial health costs.