Trump, GOP Sabotage Health Insurance Markets

Trump’s claims that Obamacare is collapsing is “disingenuous nonsesnse.”

New York Times“Mr. Trump, not surprisingly, describes things differently. He claims that uncertainty in the insurance industry is evidence that Obamacare is collapsing and needs repeal, not that he and his allies have created the uncertainty. This is disingenuous nonsense.”

 

The truth is that insurance markets are “on stable footing and will remain so” if Trump and the Republican Party don’t do things to undermine Obamacare.

New York Times“On the whole, insurance markets in much of the country are on stable footing and will remain so if Congress doesn’t do things to undermine Obamacare, according to a March report by the Congressional Budget Office. And insurers selling policies under the A.C.A. actually did better financially in 2016 than in the year before, according to an April report by Standard & Poor’s.”

 

But Trump and his administration are already sabotaging insurance markets.

Los Angeles Times“Health insurers across the country are making plans to dramatically raise Obamacare premiums or exit marketplaces amid growing exasperation with the Trump administration’s erratic management, inconsistent guidance and seeming lack of understanding of basic healthcare issues.”

Los Angeles Times“At one recent meeting, Seema Verma, whom Trump picked to oversee the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, stunned insurance industry officials by suggesting a bargain: The administration would fund the CSRs if insurers supported the House Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. ‘It made no sense,’ said one official at the meeting.”

 

Trump and the GOP have caused premiums to rise, which will leave lower-income and middle-class families with fewer options and more expensive health care.

New York Times“The mere threat that Obamacare will be dismantled or radically changed — either by Congress or by President Trump himself — has persuaded several big insurance companies to stop selling policies or significantly raise premiums. The practical effect is that some lower-income and middle-class families may have no good options for insurance and will have to spend more on health care.”