Healthcare Sabotage: Trump Officials Slash Funds to Help Consumers Sign Up

Trump and Republicans have many ways to destroy Obamacare despite the failure to repeal it in the Senate in 2017.  They eliminated the individual mandate in the 2017 tax scam that handed corporations and the wealthiest Americans billions of dollars.  They have stripped reimbursements to insurers forcing them to leave the exchanges, ended marketing of the healthcare plans, and more.  

The Trump administration announced on Tuesday [July 10, 2018] that it was slashing grants to nonprofit organizations that help people obtain health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, the latest step in an escalating attack on the law that threatens to destabilize its insurance markets.  The cuts are the second round in two years. The government will provide $10 million this fall, down from $36 million last autumn and $63 million in late 2016 — a total reduction of more than 80 percent.

The administration is not only cutting grants to navigators, but fundamentally changing their mission. They will, for the first time, help people enroll in health insurance plans that do not comply with the consumer protection standards and other requirements of the Affordable Care Act.

Backing up for a moment, let's touch on what "navigators" do.

Since they began work in 2013, navigators have helped people enroll in health plans that comply with the Affordable Care Act.   Navigators can help consumers fill out applications, complete enrollments and renew coverage online, the administration explained.

The administration is not only cutting grants to navigators, but fundamentally changing their mission. They will, for the first time, help people enroll in health insurance plans that do not comply with the consumer protection standards and other requirements of the Affordable Care Act.... should also inform consumers of other options, like “association health plans” and short-term, limited-duration insurance.   Such plans do not have to provide the standard health benefits like preventive services, maternity care or prescription drug coverage, but administration officials say they will also be more affordable to consumers.

Fred Ammons, who supervises the Insure Georgia navigator organization, said: “This is a huge cut to navigator programs across the country. It will virtually eliminate face-to-face in-person assistance. It means less help, much less help, to underserved, hard-to-reach populations, people who live in rural areas or have low literacy or don’t speak English as their primary language.”

The sabotage of the Affordable Care Act is continuing without any coverage.  

The announcement on Tuesday, by Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, came three days after the administration suspended a program that stabilizes health insurance markets by paying billions of dollars to insurers that enroll large numbers of unhealthy people under the Affordable Care Act. Insurers said the freeze would cause turmoil in insurance markets and drive up premiums.

Meanwhile last month in June 2018, TRUMP'S DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE LED BY JEFF SESSIONS TOLD THE FEDERAL COURTS TO RULE THE PRIMARY PARTS OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT ILLEGAL.

The Trump administration told a federal court on Thursday [June 7, 2018] that it would no longer defend crucial provisions of the Affordable Care Act that protect consumers with pre-existing medical conditions.  Under those provisions of the law, insurance companies cannot deny coverage or charge higher rates to people with pre-existing conditions.

The Justice Department said that the protections for people with pre-existing conditions were inseparable from the individual mandate and must also be struck down. 

The mission here is clear.

Having failed to persuade Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the president is now engaged in a “sabotage crusade” to wreck the law, said Senator Ron Wyden. Wyden, the senior Democrat on the Finance Committee, expressed outrage at the administration’s effort to redefine the purpose of the navigator program.  “This move amounts to federally-funded fraud — paying groups to sell unsuspecting Americans on junk plans,” Mr. Wyden said.

Sources: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/10/us/politics/trump-affordable-care-act.html

http://smartdissent.com/article/trumps-doj-tells-federal-courts-remove-healthcare-protections