Obamacare Is Not Imploding - Trump Is Sabotaging It

(This caricature of Donald Trump is by the inimitable DonkeyHotey.)

Donald Trump continues to tell a giant lie about Obamacare. He says it is imploding, and will fail if nothing is done to repeal and replace it. What he doesn't tell you is the fact that the rising premiums for insurance is because of actions he has taken or threatened to take -- such as not continuing subsidy payments to insurance companies (and cutting sign-up information and opportunity). Here is just part of an article in The Hill (by Peter Sullivan and Rachel Roubein) about Trump's sabotage of Obamacare:

The Trump administration is taking a hatchet to ObamaCare after failing to pass legislation through Congress repealing President Obama’s signature law.

The administration has cut funding for advertising and outreach by 90 percent, raising the odds that fewer people will join the health-care exchanges during the fall enrollment period.

It has slashed funds by 41 percent for outside groups that help reach and enroll likely ObamaCare consumers.

The enrollment period has also been chopped in half, and the administration announced plans to take down the Healthcare.gov website for maintenance for hours at a time on several days during the sign-up period, two other steps likely to cut into enrollment.

All of these steps could lead fewer people to sign up for the law, which in turn might lead to higher premiums that could force others off the exchanges. . . .

The Trump attacks go beyond enrollment, too.

President Trump has threatened to cut off key ObamaCare payments to insurers in a bid to make the law “implode.”

And on Friday, his administration took a new step to roll back the law, limiting the requirement for employers and insurance plans to cover birth control.

Andy Slavitt, a former top health-care official in the Obama administration, warned on Twitter Thursday that the administration’s “sabotage” of the law added up to what he called “synthetic repeal,” meaning a range of small steps that add up to repealing ObamaCare even if Congress doesn’t act. . . .

Insurers and ObamaCare supporters are also on edge about an executive order from Trump that could come as soon as next week loosening rules to allow businesses and other groups to band together to purchase health insurance. The problem is that these special insurance plans are not subject to the same ObamaCare rules and pre-existing condition protections, which could suck the healthy enrollees out of ObamaCare plans and damage the market.  

The administration has also resisted efforts by some states, even conservative ones, to make changes aimed at stabilizing ObamaCare.