With no more bare counties, the Trump Administration has no answers – only lies

The Trump Administration did not welcome today’s news that now every single county in the United States has health insurers participating in the exchanges and offering coverage.

Instead, they responded by continuing to tout the negative consequences of President Trump sabotaging insurance markets – efforts that medical experts, industry leaders, and health insurance companies themselves have all stated are undermining the Affordable Care Act.
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Experts have especially decried ​Trump’s threats to withhold payment of cost-sharing reductions that help working Americans have health coverage, which they say are the primary driver of premium increases and insurer withdrawal decisions.

“Someone should tell the Trump Administration that it’s the President’s deliberate sabotage of the marketplaces that is causing the premium increases they’re disingenuously pointing to,” said American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates. “They should be welcoming this good news for families – not rooting for bad developments that might help their politics.”

THE FACTS

​TRUMP HAS THREATENED TO END AFFORDABLE CARE ACT COST-SHARING FUNDS:

  • ​Wall Street Journal, 4/12/2017: “Nearly three weeks after Republican infighting sank an overhaul of the Affordable Care Act, President Donald Trump dug back into the battle on Wednesday, threatening to withhold payments to insurers to force Democrats to the negotiating table.”
  • ​Axios, 5/2/2017: “Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney reopened the debate over Affordable Care Act payments to insurers this afternoon, suggesting at a White House briefing that the Trump administration hasn’t decided whether to provide the May payments for cost-sharing reduction subsidies.”​

TRUMP’S THREATS ARE DESTABILIZING INSURANCE MARKETS :

America’s Health Insurance Plans, et al. in Letter to Donald Trump, 4/12/2017: “A critical priority is to stabilize the individual health insurance market. The window is quickly closing to properly price individual insurance products for 2018. The most critical action to help stabilize the individual market for 2017 and 2018 is to remove uncertainty about continued funding for cost sharing reductions (CSRs)….We urge the Administration and Congress to take quick action to ensure CSRs are funded.“​

​Additional organizations that signed the letter:​

  • American Academy of Family Physicians

  • American Benefits Council

  • American Hospital Association

  • American Medical Association

  • Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

  • Federation of American Hospitals

  • U.S. Chamber of Commerce

America’s Health Insurance Plans, et al. in joint statement, 8/2/2017: “Cost-sharing reductions are used to help those who need it most—low- and moderate-income consumers. These funds, which are built into their benefits, reduce their out-of-pocket costs such as copayments and deductibles when they receive care. Without these funds, consumers’ access to care is jeopardized, their premiums will increase dramatically, and they will be left with even fewer coverage options.” 

Additional organizations that signed the letter: 

  • American Academy of Family Physicians
  • American Benefits Council, American Hospital Association
  • American Medical Association
  • Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
  • Federation of American Hospitals
  • U.S. Chamber of Commerce

TRUMP’S THREAT IS CAUSING INSURERS TO RAISE PRICES ON CONSUMERS​:

Des Moines Register, 8/16/2017: “Iowans who buy their own health insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchange would see their rates increase nearly 57 percent next year under a revised rate proposed Wednesday. The proposal is 13 percentage points higher than previously was estimated by Medica, the one remaining carrier selling individual policies in Iowa next year. Medica attributed the additional increase to uncertainties over federal health care subsidies, the insurer said in a release.”​

Vox, 5/8/2017: “The administration has been aggressively ambiguous about key policy issues, like whether it will enforce the health care law’s individual mandate or pay out insurance subsidies aimed at the lowest-income Obamacare enrollees. In response, insurance executives tell Vox they will charge steeper rates in 2018 in order to avoid losing money. Others are quitting the marketplace altogether, saying the future just looks to uncertain to take a gamble.​”

  • Robert Laszewski, Health Policy and Strategy Associates, 5/8/2017: “The health plans I work with want to stay in, but the Trump administration is not making that easy…”

  • Blue Shield of California CEO Paul Markovich, 5/8/2017: “It’s pretty clear we need more certainty to be able to file the rates assuming we get those federal payments…Short of that, we’d have to assume they’re not being paid.”

Avalere President Dan Mendelson, 5/10/2017: “The administration is leaving considerable uncertainty as to what’s going to happen next year…The [cost-sharing reduction] money is currently a significant political football that’s going back and forth, and that kind of uncertainty kills markets.”

Bloomberg, 5/9/2017: “Health insurers are asking for sharp increases in the cost of their Obamacare plans next year, thanks to instability in the law’s coverage markets that’s been compounded by the Trump administration.”

  • Bloomberg, 5/9/2017: “‘Failure to enforce the individual mandate makes it far more likely that healthier, younger individuals will drop coverage and drive up the cost for everyone,’ Chet Burrell, chief executive officer of CareFirst, said in a statement. The insurer is asking for an at least 50 percent increase in premiums in Maryland. Burrell said uncertainty over the mandate played a ‘significant role’ in the insurer’s rate requests.​

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