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May 2018

ashoup
In News, Stories, Administration

“Trump’s Former Top Health Official Just Broke With Him On The GOP’s Biggest Move To Undercut Obamacare”: Tom Price Admits That Trump, GOP Sabotage Responsible for Higher Costs

This morning, former HHS Secretary Tom Price admitted what every health policy expert, the Congressional Budget Office, state insurance commissioners – namely everyone other than repeal-supporting Republicans – has long said: the Trump Administration is responsible for the increase in premiums. Speaking of the repeal of the individual mandate, Price said, “And there are many, and I’m one of them, who believes that that actually will harm the pool in the exchange market, because you’ll likely have individuals who are younger and healthier not participating in that market, and consequently, that drives up the cost for other folks within that market.” Here’s how it played:

Washington Post: Trump’s Former Health Secretary: Americans Will Pay More Because GOP Weakened Obamacare. “President Trump’s former top health official on Tuesday said the Republican tax law would raise the cost of health insurance for some Americans because it repealed a core provision of the Affordable Care Act. Tom Price, Trump’s first secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said people buying insurance on government-run marketplaces will face higher prices because the tax law repealed the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. The mandate had forced most Americans to have health coverage or face a financial penalty.” [Washington Post, 5/1]

Business Insider: Trump’s Former Top Health Official Just Broke With Him On The GOP’s Biggest Move To Undercut Obamacare. “Tom Price, the former Health and Human Services Secretary under President Donald Trump, criticized a key Republican change to Obamacare during a speech Tuesday. Speaking at the World Health Care Congress, Price suggested the Republican Party’s repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate — the requirement to buy insurance or face a penalty — was a faulty idea. He said it would drive up costs for people in the individual insurance marketplace.” [Business Insider, 5/1]

Vox: Trump’s Ex-Health Secretary Accidentally Told The Truth About Obamacare Repeal. “Repealing Obamacare’s individual mandate will hurt the law’s insurance marketplaces because fewer young and healthy people will buy coverage, leaving an older, sicker, and more expensive pool behind. Just ask, uh, former Trump health secretary Tom Price. Price, who was forced out of the US Health and Human Services Department last year after a scandal over luxurious charter jet travel, accurately described the pitfalls of the GOP’s decision to repeal the mandate in its tax bill in a speech to the World Health Care Congress in Washington, DC. This is, of course, exactly what health policy experts would tell you. The mandate didn’t quite work as well as planned, but the expectation is still that younger and healthier people are going to leave the Obamacare markets without it — especially with the Trump administration making cheaper, less comprehensive plans more available via regulation.” [Vox, 5/1]

Slate: Tom Price, Somewhat Belatedly, Starts Telling the Truth About Obamacare. “It took longer than expected, but disgraced former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price appears to have been welcomed back into polite society. Untethered from the political concerns that dictated what he could say either as a congressman or Cabinet member, Price is now able to tell certain truths about health care policy—though, in telling them now, he only confirms his own dishonesty about them when it mattered. Speaking at the World Health Care Congress on Tuesday morning, Price laid out the consequences of congressional Republicans’ decision to eliminate the individual mandate penalty in last year’s tax reform bill.” [Slate, 5/1]

Washington Times: Tom Price: Repeal Of Obamacare Mandate Will Drive Up Costs. “Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said Tuesday the GOP’s decision to repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate without a broader overhaul of the heath care system will likely increase costs on consumers who remain in the program. The comments from Mr. Price, who was ousted from HHS last fall over his pricey business travel, were remarkable, since he claimed the mandate was ineffective while in office. Also, Democrats have been making the same argument in accusing President Trump and his Republican allies of sabotaging the 2010 law’s marketplace.” [Washington Times, 5/1]

USA Today: Former HHS Sec. Price: Repealing The Individual Mandate ‘Will Harm’ People Insured Through Obamacare. “Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said Tuesday that repealing the requirement that all Americans have health insurance or face a tax penalty, may not have been such a good idea after all… Price’s comments come the same day the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation that studies health care and says it is focused on helping the most needy members of society, came out with a study that found since 2016 4 million working-age people no longer have insurance coverage. The foundation said the drop in coverage was not connected to a repeal in the individual mandate but instead due to  weaknesses with the current health care law that remain unfixed and the Trump Administration’s cuts to advertising and outreach related to getting people signed up for Obamacare.” [USA Today, 5/1]

CNBC: Trump’s Former Health Secretary, Tom Price, Now Thinks Repealing The Individual Mandate Will Increase Costs. “ormer Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price used to say that Obamacare’s individual mandate increased health-care costs. Now he’s saying Congress’ decision to repeal it could actually increase costs. Lawmakers repealed the individual mandate, which penalized people who did not purchase health insurance, in the GOP tax reform bill President Donald Trump signed into law in December. The change goes into effect next year. Price argued Tuesday, in a speech at the World Health Care Congress in Washington, that the move amounts to ‘nibbling at the sides’ of the Affordable Care Act, long a target of the GOP and Trump – and that it would probably boost costs.” [CNBC, 5/1]

Splinter News: Tom Price, Disgraced Ex-Trump Official, Admits He’s Also a Huge Liar. “Price said he ‘believes [the repeal] actually will harm the pool in the exchange market, because you’ll likely have individuals who are younger and healthier not participating in that market, and consequently, that drives up the cost for other folks within that market.’ This is a very interesting development, given that last year, when he was actually in a position to influence whether or not this happened, he supported the repeal.” [Splinter News, 5/1]

The Hill: Tom Price: Obamacare Mandate Repeal Will Drive Up Costs. “Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price on Tuesday said that the repeal of ObamaCare’s individual mandate would drive up costs, a remark seized on by Democrats… Democrats immediately highlighted the remark from President Trump’s own former health secretary and fierce opponent of ObamaCare. They say his statement reinforces the argument that Republicans are to blame for coming premium increases in large part due to their repeal in the December tax bill of the mandate that most people obtain health insurance or pay a fine. ‘We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves,’ Matt House, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), said in email linking to Price’s comments. Added Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), ‘I’m glad to see former Secretary Price admit the truth, which is that families’ premiums are going up because President Trump and Republicans in Congress have spiked prices with their relentless, partisan health care sabotage.’” [The Hill, 5/1]

Inside Health Policy: Price: Individual Mandate Repeal Will Drive Up Costs, Hurt Risk Pools. “Former HHS Secretary Tom Price, who was at the helm of HHS during the Trump administration’s 2017 efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare, told attendees at the 2018 World Health Care Congress that he is not a fan of the repeal of the federal individual mandate penalty and said the measure tucked into the new tax law will drive up costs and hurt the risk pools.” [Inside Health Policy, 5/1]

Talking Points Memo: Tom Price: Individual Mandate Repeal Will ‘Harm’ Insurance Exchanges. “Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, now safely out of power, said Tuesday that Republicans’ repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate will ‘harm’ the individual insurance marketplace… Price is making a mundane point to most health care policy experts: If, beginning in 2019, individuals on the non-group market are allowed to avoid choosing between paying for insurance or paying a penalty, many healthy people will simply drop their insurance. As a result, prices for individuals remaining in Obamacare’s individual insurance marketplaces will go up. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2016, and again in 2017, that repealing the individual mandate would increase the number of uninsured people in the United States.” [TPM, 5/1]

ashoup
In News, Administration, Stories

Republicans Knew Premiums Would Go Up When They Sabotaged Your Health Care, But They Did It Anyway

For the past year and a half, Republicans have waged a non-stop war against the Affordable Care Act. Throughout 2017, Republicans tried time after time to repeal the Affordable Care Act, slashed funding for outreach, ended cost-sharing reduction payments that helped low income Americans afford health care, and passed a tax bill that the Congressional Budget Office predicts will strip health care from 13 million Americans and raise premiums by double digits.  

Throughout their many layers of sabotage, Republicans have played ignorant, trying to cover up the fact that their votes will send Americans’ premiums skyrocketing. Just this morning, former HHS Secretary Tom Price called out Republicans’ lies, saying that the tax bill’s repeal of the individual mandate “will harm the pool in the exchange market, because you’ll likely have individuals who are younger and healthier not participating in that market, and consequently, that drives up the cost for other folks within that market.”

Just one month after voting for a tax bill that the CBO projected would raise insurance premiums by double digits, Sen. Ted Cruz acted as though he had wanted to lower premiums the whole time: “I think lowering premiums is a win-win for everybody…The number one reason people despise Obamacare is that premiums have skyrocketed.” As much as Republicans try to distance themselves from it, the fact of the matter is clear: they knew they were voting to raise premiums, and they chose to do it anyway.

EACH STEP OF THE WAY, EXPERTS WARNED THAT SABOTAGE WOULD DRIVE PREMIUMS UP

The Trump Administration Deliberately Tried To Reduce Enrollment Of Healthy Individuals By Halting Outreach, Despite Commonly Understood Consequence That This Would Increase Premiums.

  • January 2017: In “Transparent Effort To Damage Stability Of Health Insurance Marketplace,” President Trump Abruptly Halts Open Enrollment Ads. In the final week of open enrollment, President Trump ended ads that let people know they could sign up for the Affordable Care Act. As Politico notes, “The last five days of the open enrollment season are seen as critical because many individuals procrastinate and then join a last-minute sign-up surge. That’s particularly true for younger and healthier customers who are crucial to making insurance markets work.”
  • February 2017: Analysis Shows Trump’s Cuts To Outreach Prevent Nearly 500,000 People From Getting Coverage. Following Trump’s initial cuts to outreach, it was estimated that Trump’s cuts blocked nearly 500,000 people from getting coverage. When fewer healthy people are able to purchase care, experts agree that premiums increase.
  • August 2017: Trump Administration Cuts Aca Advertising Budget By 90 Percent, Despite Evidence That It Will Cause Premiums To Increase. [Vox, 8/31/17]
  • Because The Administration Still Refuses To Adequately Fund Outreach, Insurance Commissioners Warn That Premiums Will Continue To Increase. Peter Lee, the head of California’s ACA Marketplace wrote in a letter to HHS that premiums would go up because of the Administration’s failure to properly fund outreach: “The reality is clear: If the federal government maintains the current cuts in marketing and outreach, premiums will be higher than necessary, consumers will be hurt as a result and taxpayers will pay the price by supporting higher [than] necessary subsidies. This does not need to happen and can easily be avoided…Drops in new enrollment are a formula for a worse risk mix and higher premiums.” [Letter to HHS, 4/25/18]

Months Before The Trump Administration Ended Payments That Helped Lower Income Americans Afford Insurance, The CBO Warned That Doing So Would Raise Premiums By 20 Percent. President Trump Ended Them Anyway:

  • August 2017: CBO Warns That Premiums Will Increase By 20 Percent If Cost-Sharing Reduction Payments Are Terminated. “If President Trump follows through on his threat to stop paying billions of dollars of subsidies critical to insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act, insurance premiums for certain plans would rise by 20 percent next year, according to a new analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.” [Washington Post, 8/15/17]
  • October 2017: Trump Administration Decides To Halt Cost-Sharing Reduction Payments. Despite the CBO’s warning that ending cost-sharing reduction payments (CSRs) would cause premiums to rise by 20%, the Trump Administration decided to do so anyways. [Washington Post, 10/13/17]
  • After The Fact, Insurance Commissioners Did Exactly What The Cbo Said Would Happen — They Raised Premiums. Jessica Altman, Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner: “This is not the situation I hoped we would be in, but due to President Trump’s refusal to make cost-sharing reduction payments for 2018 and Congress’s inaction to appropriate funds, it is the reality that state regulators must face and the reason rate increases will be higher than they should be across the country.” [CNN Money, 10/17/17]
  • Now, Research Confirms That Ending CSRs Caused Premiums To Jump, And Is Expected To Do So Again In 2019. RWJ’s interviews with ten insurance companies found that the loss of cost-sharing reduction plan reimbursements drove premium increases in 2018 ranging from 10 to 20 percent. [Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Urban Institute, 3/19/18]

Republicans Knew That Repealing The Requirement That Most People Have Insurance Would Drive Up Premiums, And Rushed To Do So Without Public Comment:

  • November 2017: Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Estimates That Repealing The Individual Mandate Will Push Premiums Up By 10 Percent Annually. Last fall, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released numbers that repealing the requirement that most people have insurance would increase premiums by roughly 10 percent each year for the next decade. [Congressional Budget Office, November 2017]
  • November 2017: Sen. Susan Collins Acknowledges That Repealing Individual Mandate Would Raise Premiums. “‘One of the major concerns I had was the impact on premiums of repealing the individual mandate,’ [Collins] said Tuesday, referring to government estimates that repealing the mandate would raise insurance premiums by at least 10 percent as healthier consumers leave the market.” [Talking Points Memo, 11/29/17]
  • December 2017: Republican Senate Hurries To Pass Final Gop Tax Bill, Which Repeals Individual Mandate Despite Cbo Analysis That It Will Drive Premiums Up, In The Dark Of The Night And Without Public Hearings. Senate Republicans were determined to stop discussion on their tax bill from ever seeing the light of day. In December, they passed their tax bill in a matter of weeks, without hearing any public hearings. The process was so rushed that entire pagers were crossed out of the final version of the bill, and amendments were handwritten and barely legible.

After Sen. Collins Exchanged Her Vote On The Tax Bill For A Promise To Pass ACA Stabilization, Republicans Sabotage Bipartisan Efforts To Pass Bill That Would Help Control Premium Hikes:

  • December 2017: To Counteract The Increase In Premiums That Would Follow Repealing The Individual Mandate, Sen. Susan Collins Exchanges Tax Bill Vote For Aca Stabilization Bill. Sen. In exchange for her vote on the GOP tax bill, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, President Trump, and Vice President Trump committed to passing a health care stabilization measure. [Washington Post, 12/15/17]
  • March 2018: After Pushing The Stabilization Vote Into The Next Year, Republicans Refused To Vote On Stabilization Unless Democrats Agreed To A List Of Deal Breaking Demands. In the middle of bipartisan negotiations on stabilization, the White House released its list of demands, including: Expanding the Hyde abortion language, codifying the Administration’s Short-Term proposal into law that undermine protections for people with pre-existing conditions, expanding Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) that is essentially another tax cut for the wealthy, mposing an age tax on older Americans by letting insurers charge people over 50 five times more than younger people. [White House Document, obtained by Politico, 3/8/18]
  • March 2018: There Is No Vote On Stabilization. [New York Magazine, 3/26/18]

Ignoring Warnings From Health Insurers, Trump Administration Proposes Changes To Short-Term Health Plans That Would Drive Up Premiums For Americans In Individual Marketplace:

  • July 2017: In Letter To HHS, America’s Health Insurance Plans Warns That Allowing Short-Term Plans To Offer Coverage For More Than Three Months At A Time Will Drive Up Premiums. “A blanket extension of the permitted length of short term policies will draw lower risk people out of the individual market single risk pool and drive up premium costs for consumers.” [America’s Health Insurance Plans Letter To HHHS, 7/12/17]
  • October 2017: President Trump Signs Executive Order That Expands Access To Short-Term Health Plans. President Trump’s executive order allows short-term plans to last for 12 months and be renewable, a notable change from the previous rule, which limited these plans to three months and prevented them from being renewed. [The Atlantic, 10/12/17]
  • February 2018: Administration Releases Fact Sheet On Short-Term Rule That Would Allow Insurers To Sell Year-Long Plans. [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2/20/18]
  • March 2018: Nonpartisan Urban Institute Says Premiums Will Increase By Nearly 20 Percent. Confirming what experts had warned of, the Urban Institute calculated that increasing the availability of short-term health plans, when combined with the repeal of the individual mandate, would lead premiums to increase by an average of 18.3 percent in 2019. [Urban Institute, March 2019]
  • March 2018: AARP Analysis Projects Short-Term Plans Will Cause Older Americans’ Premiums To Increase By 16.6 Percent. As a result of President Trump and his Republican allies’ pushing junk insurance plans, AARP expects premiums for older Americans buying marketplace health coverage to increase by an average of 16.6 percent in 2019.  [AARP, 3/21/18]

Each Of The Administration’s Decisions Is Designed Drive People Off Of Health Care And Increase Premiums:

  • Katherine Hempstead, health insurance expert at Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Anything That Undermines The ACA-Compliant Risk Pool Is Bad For Premiums.  “Anything that undermines the ACA-compliant risk pool is bad for premiums in the ACA market…Every exit ramp makes that market more expensive and less competitive than it otherwise would be.” [Modern Healthcare, 4/26/18]

NOW, THE CONSENSUS IS IN: REPUBLICANS KNOWINGLY DROVE UP PREMIUMS

Vox: Republican Sabotage To Blame For Premium Hikes. “The Trump administration’s multifaceted crusade against the health care law — slashing outreach budgets and pulling the law’s cost-sharing reduction payments to insurers — were already to blame for a 20 percent premium hike this year. Then Congress repealed the individual mandate in their tax bill, a huge political victory given the GOP’s vehement opposition to the mandate but one that insurers have said would drive up premiums even more next year.” [Vox, 4/25/18]

Washington Post: “The Pottery Barn Rule Comes To Mind: You Break It, You Own It.” “This is not ‘letting’ Obamacare fail. Many nonpartisan experts believe that these active measures are likely to undermine the pillars of the 2010 law and hasten the collapse of the marketplaces. The Pottery Barn rule comes to mind: You break it, you own it. Yes, the plate you just shattered had some cracks in it. But if you dropped it on the ground, the store is going to blame you.” [Washington Post, 10/13/17]

The American People Agree: President Trump And Congressional Republicans Are Playing Politics With People’s Health Care. A poll conducted last September found that 61 percent of voters believed President Trump was “trying to make the Affordable Care Act fail,” and 64 percent of voters said Trump is “playing politics with people’s health care.” The poll also found that the American people seriously disapprove of how Republicans in Congress are treating health care: 80 percent of voters disapprove while only 20 percent approve. [Garin Poll, 9/5/17]

RECENT HEADLINES PAINT A TELLING PICTURE

EVEN REPUBLICANS ADMIT THEY’RE TO BLAME

Sen. Lamar Alexander: “Rates Will Go Up…They’re Going To Blame Every One Of Us, And They Should.” On the topic of failing to pass a stabilization bill, Sen. Alexander said: “Rates will go up. The individual market will probably collapse…There will be 11 million people who are between jobs, who are self-employed, who are working, who literally cannot afford insurance, and they’re not going to be very happy. And they’re going to blame every one of us, and they should.” [Vox, 4/25/18]

Lindsey Graham: Republicans “Own The Outcome” On Health Care. “Sen. Graham told Breitbart News, ‘In October, premiums are going up. Obamacare cannot be fixed. It’s going to continue to collapse, and then, we own the outcome. By repealing the individual mandate, which is a step forward in the eyes of the public, we own the issue. We have a responsibility to do something about the collapsing Obamacare system. I believe that we’re going to get blamed more than Democrats because we stopped trying to repeal Obamacare, and to suggest that we don’t own it is just simply politically naive.’ Graham continued, ‘It can hurt us in 2018. It can hurt by our base feeling like we betrayed them. It can hurt us from people suffering from Obamacare, like we don’t have a solution. It will energize Democrats. It can undercut everything we did on the tax cut side.'” [Breitbart, 2/6/18]

Rep. Charlie Dent: Republicans “Own” Health Care Now. “Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) argued Friday that President Trump was ‘ill-advised’ to end key ObamaCare payments, warning that the GOP now ‘owns’ whatever happens to ObamaCare. ‘I think the president is ill-advised to take this course of action because … we, the Republican Party, will own this,’ Dent, a key House moderate who is retiring from Congress at the end of his term, said on CNN. Asked about Trump’s previous comments blaming problems with ObamaCare on former President Barack Obama, Dent pointed out that Republicans currently control the White House and have majorities in both chambers of Congress. ‘Barack Obama is a former president. President Trump is the president and he’s a Republican, and we control the Congress,’ Dent said. ‘So we own the system now. We’re going to have to figure out a way to stabilize this situation … This is on us.'” [The Hill, 10/13/17]

ashoup
In News, Stories

Administrator Verma Rejects Responsibility For Sabotage As Americans Bear Brunt Of Trump Administration’s Damage

SHOT:

CMS Chief Seema Verma Slams Claims That She And Trump Administration Have Sabotaged Americans’ Health Care [MedPage Today]:

“‘I take exception to those out there who have made claims that we have tried to sabotage the healthcare of the American people, particularly when it comes to the healthcare exchanges,’ [Verma] said here at the World Health Care Congress. ‘Obamacare was failing long before Donald Trump became president and I became CMS administrator.’

“The reality, said Verma, is that health insurers have fled the exchange markets ‘after losing millions of dollars.’”

CHASER:

Since President Trump Came Into Office, Millions Of Americans Have Lost Health Coverage. A recent survey by the Commonwealth Fund shows that nearly 4 million people have lost coverage since 2016. The uninsured rate among working age people is now 15.5 percent, a significant increase from 12.7 percent in 2016.

Why? Because The Trump Administration Has Sabotaged The Affordable Care Act. Per Axios, “Commonwealth attributes the increase largely to the way Congress and the Trump administration has handled the ACA.”

CHASER:

More Evidence Of The Administration’s Sabotage: Health Care Premiums Will Increase By An Average of 18.3 Percent In 2019. Because Republicans repealed the requirement that most people have insurance and are expanding access to short-term health plans, the nonpartisan Urban Institute estimates that health care premiums will increase by an average of 18.3 percent in 2019.

CHASER:

The Administration Is Bringing Back Junk Insurance That Leaves Americans On Their Own Should They Get Sick. The Trump Administration expanding access to short-term health plans that let insurers deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, impose coverage limits, and refuse to cover basic health benefits like maternity care and prescription drugs. These plans help insurers make money while leaving Americans who get sick on their own, often with tremendous debt.

Experts, Disease Groups, And Advocates Warn That Short-Term Plans Will Increase Costs And Reduce Protections For Consumers:

AARP: Short-Term Plans Will Increase Older Americans’ Premiums By An Average Of $2,000, or As Much As $4,000. “Unfortunately, these changes would result in much higher premiums for older adults and people with preexisting health conditions buying individual policies through the ACA Marketplace…Using 2018 Marketplace premiums, we estimate these premium increases could be an average of $2,000 — or as much as $4,000 (Table 1) — for 60 year-olds who buy silver plan coverage.” [AARP, 3/21/18]

Margaret Murray, CEO of Association for Community Affiliated Plans: Short Term Plans “strip every provision that might be of value to a patient.” “Not only do STLDI plans not cover pre-existing conditions, but what was covered when you bought the plan can be excluded three months later when you try to renew the plan. Rescissions are rampant in the STLDI market, leading to retroactive cancellation of policies that stick patients with enormous medical bills.” [Washington Examiner, 4/26/18]

American Academy of Family Physicians: Short-Term Plans Would Destabilize Market. “We are troubled by how the proposed rule would further destabilize the individual market by drawing young, healthy people away from meaningful, comprehensive coverage…under the proposed rule, insurers could reduce or eliminate certain EHBs to avoid vulnerable, expensive patients by excluding specific services.” [Letter to HHS, 4/18/18]

Dr. David O. Barbe, president of American Medical Association: Short-Term Plans Result In “Inadequate” Health Coverage. “We believe the proposed rule, however, would culminate in plans being offered that fall far short of maintaining crucial state and federal patient protections, disrupt and destabilize the individual health insurance markets, and result in substandard, inadequate health insurance coverage.” [Forbes, 4/22/18]

American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network: Short-Term Plans Are Exempt From Consumer Protections. “We are very concerned about policies that would expand access to STLD policies because these products are exempt from important consumer protections, such as prohibitions on lifetime and annual dollar limits, limits on the use of pre-existing condition exclusions, and the prohibition on medical underwriting…We are afraid that some consumers choose to enroll in STLD policies simply because of the lower premium and are unaware of the limitations of the coverage.” [ACS CAN letter to HHS, 4/20/18]

Alliance of Community Health Plans: Short-Term Plans Will Cause Insurers To Flee The Market.  “ACHP is also concerned that the proposed rule will cause more insurers to flee the market, leaving consumers with fewer coverage options.” [Letter to HHS, 4/19/18]

ashoup
In News, Administration, Stories

Ex-Secretary Tom Price: Trump and GOP Responsible For Upcoming Rate Hikes

Washington, D.C. – In response to former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s comments this morning to the World Health Care Congress that Republicans’ TrumpTax bill and its individual mandate repeal will increase Americans’ health care costs, Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse released the following statement:

“Today, President Trump’s own former HHS secretary, Tom Price, admitted that the Republican tax bill’s sabotage of the Affordable Care Act will increase health care costs. Ex-Secretary Price has confirmed that President Trump and Congressional Republicans chose a trillion-dollar tax break for corporations and the wealthiest at the expense of hardworking Americans’ health care. Months ago when the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the TrumpTax would raise premiums by ten percent while kicking millions of Americans off of their coverage, Republican senators responded by accusing CBO of bias and dismissing their findings. Now, one of the Trump Administration’s lead saboteurs has admitted the truth. Americans now have it straight from Tom Price: Republicans are responsible for upcoming rate hikes.”

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