Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Tough Talk: Trump's Open Warfare Against Obamacare; Ideas That Deepen Health Care 'Inequality'
The New York Times: How To Fight The New Trumpcare
Since Donald Trump’s election, a loose coalition of citizens, doctors, nurses, activists and others have rallied together to prevent their fellow Americans from losing health insurance. They won a big victory last month when Congress set aside its efforts to pass a destructive bill. But now the coalition has a new fight. Trumpcare has begun, not through legislation but through executive action. (David Leonhardt, 10/15)
Los Angeles Times: Trump Has Declared Open War On The ACA. We'll All Get Hurt
The Trump administration has declared open war on the Affordable Care Act. With its abrupt decision to terminate critical subsidies, it has thrown the exchanges into chaos on the eve of open enrollment; it has imperiled the full faith and credit of the United States; and it will cause a massive increase in federal spending. This is no way to run a healthcare system, and no way to run a government. (Nicholas Bagley, 10/13)
The New York Times: Trump Is Trying To Gut Obamacare. Here’s Why His Plan May Fail.
President Trump’s decision to stop paying subsidies to insurance companies that cover many low-income Americans is his most overt action so far to undermine the Obamacare markets, which reopen for sign-ups on Nov. 1. But the timing of the announcement, late Thursday night, means the ending of subsidies may be less disruptive than it might have been months ago, when he began threatening such action. It still could cause insurers to leave some Obamacare markets and places where customers have no insurance choice, but it probably won’t cause the widespread meltdown it might have, if it had happened earlier this year. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 10/13)
San Francisco Chronicle: Trump Declares War On Health Care
Most of Congress’ remarkable streak of failed attempts to “repeal and replace Obamacare” at least pretended to follow through on the “replace” half of the promise. President Trump’s administrative ambush of the law this week dispensed with that pretense and laid bare his ill will: to dismantle President Barack Obama’s health care reform without regard for what follows. (10/13)
The New York Times: Trump’s Obamacare Moves Will Deepen Health Inequality
President Trump’s actions on Obamacare will accelerate a recent trend toward dividing the individual health insurance market between the healthy and those with chronic illness and between the wealthy and the poor. The immediate elimination of cost-sharing-reduction subsidies will have a great impact. These subsidies lower the out-of-pocket expenses for individuals who earn between 100 percent and 250 percent of the federal poverty level. About seven million people qualified for C.S.R.s, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. (David Anderson, 10/13)
The Washington Post: Trump’s Not Going To Be Able To Avoid Blame For Kneecapping Obamacare
Let’s set aside for the moment President Trump’s decision to end Obamacare’s cost-sharing reduction payments (CSRs) to insurers, a system under which insurers are subsidized to help keep costs low for low-income insurance recipients. Let’s also set aside the other ways in which the Trump administration has been deliberately undermining enrollment in the Obamacare marketplaces. We’ll set aside that the administration has slashed funding to outreach programs by as much as 92 percent, ended partnerships with state groups aimed at getting people enrolled, cut funding for advertising the enrollment period and even decided it would shut down the enrollment website for 12 hours a week for maintenance. (Philip Bump, 10/13)
Chicago Tribune: Will Congress Now Override Trump's Obamacare Moves?
President Donald Trump issued a sweeping executive order on Thursday that may help lower costs and create more options for many Americans who struggle to find health insurance. But we learned later Thursday that he also is poised to halt billions in subsidy payments to insurance companies that help cover medical costs for millions of low-income Americans. (10/13)
Health Affairs Blog: Administration’s Ending Of Cost-Sharing Reduction Payments Likely To Roil Individual Markets
Yesterday, October 12, 2017, the White House press office announced that the administration will no longer be reimbursing insurers for the cost-sharing reductions they are legally required to make for low-income individuals. The Affordable Care Act requires insurers to reduce cost sharing for individuals who enroll in silver plans and have household incomes not exceeding 250 percent of the federal poverty level. These provisions reduce the out-of-pocket limit for these enrollees—particularly for those with incomes below 200 percent of poverty—and sharply reduce deductibles, coinsurance, and copayments. The reductions cost insurers around $7 billion a year currently. (Timothy Jost, 10/13)
The Washington Post: States Have Already Tried Trump’s Health-Care Order. It Went Badly.
Even after Republicans in Congress failed three times to rid themselves of the Affordable Care Act, President Trump has proved that there is no shortage of ideas for how to disrupt the health-care system. The president signed an executive order Thursday that will allow small employers to join associations of small business — such as farm bureaus or chambers of commerce — that provide health coverage to their members. If such associations self-insure, existing law might enable them to avoid both state insurance regulations and the core of the ACA. Thus, a simple turn of the regulatory dials could free up a large portion of the most heavily regulated parts of the health-insurance market. (Mark A. Hall, 10/13)
Detroit Free Press: Bleeding The Base: Why Is Trump Targeting His Voters' Health Care?
The conventional wisdom is that Donald Trump's decision to suspend the federal subsidies insurers say are vital to the survival of Obamacare is simply the latest manifestation of the current president's contempt for everything associated with his predecessor. Haters gonna hate, after all. And who hates anything more passionately than 45 hates 44? (Brian Dickerson, 10/16)
USA Today: Trump Sells Out Your Health Insurance
Donald Trump and fellow Republicans spent much of the Obama administration complaining about how the president was legislating by the fiat of executive order, bypassing Congress and undermining existing law. So what has President Trump done with his latest actions on the Affordable Care Act? Legislate by fiat, bypass Congress and undermine existing law. (10/15)
The New York Times: Not Dead Yet: Obamacare Insurers Are Hanging In There
Despite President Trump’s best efforts, the Obamacare market hasn’t imploded yet. While Thursday’s decisions to cut off government funding and invite competition from flimsier, cheaper plans will jostle a vulnerable market, many of the major insurance companies say they will remain in the state marketplaces next year. (Reed Abelson and Margot Sanger-Katz, 10/13)
