Trump Extorted Insurers to Make Them Support Health-Care Bill

[riversedge]

May 18, 2017 6:02 pm

Trump Extorted Insurers to Make Them Support Health-Care Bill

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/05/trump-extorted-insurers-to-support-health-care-bill.html




By Jonathan Chait

Image
Donald Trump: My friend here is clumsy, I hope he doesn’t break something. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

One of the most plausible predictions of the kinds of long-term damage Donald Trump might do to the United States was written by Matthew Yglesias a week after the election. He described a scenario in which Trump used government power to coerce business to support him and his agenda. “Those who support the regime will receive favorable treatment from regulators, and those who oppose it will not,” in this haunting scenario, which resembles the nexus between business and government that prevails in Russia and other authoritarian capitalist states.

Noam Levey reports an example of this already happening. The thrust of Levey’s story is focused on the belief by insurers that uncertainty fostered by the Trump administration is killing health-care exchanges. Deep in the piece, Levey describes a Trump staffer threatening to withhold cost-sharing-reduction payments, called CSR, which are a vital part of making individual insurance profitable. “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,” reports Levey............



Here is the article linked in the above story:

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-obamacare-trump-mismanagement-20170518-story.html

Health insurers plan big Obamacare rate hikes — and they blame Trump



Noam N. Levey
8-10 minutes

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.

At the same time, state insurance regulators — both Democrat and Republican — have increasingly concluded they cannot count on the Trump administration to help them ensure that consumers will have access to a health plan next year.

The growing frustration with the Trump administration’s management — reflected in letters to state regulators and in interviews with more than two dozen senior industry and government officials nationwide — undercuts a key White House claim that Obamacare insurance marketplaces are collapsing on their own.

Instead, according to many officials, it is the Trump administration that is driving much of the current instability by refusing to commit to steps to keep markets running, such as funding aid for low-income consumers or enforcing penalties for people who go without insurance.

“All this uncertainty is not helpful,” warned Blue Shield of California Chief Executive Paul Markovich, who said health plans were being forced to make plans to raise premiums to account for the turmoil, jeopardizing Americans’ coverage.

Markovich was one of the few senior insurance officials who agreed to speak on the record, as many fear retribution from the White House or its allies.

But privately, many executives, including chief executives of major health plans, offered withering criticism of the Trump administration’s lack of leadership.

“It’s hard to know who’s home,” said one chief executive. “We don’t know who is making decisions.”

Another chief executive said: “There seems to be no coordination or coherent planning.… It’s a mess.”

A third official observed: “There is a sense that there are no hands on the wheel and they are just letting the bus careen down the road.”.............................................

[Panich52]

1. K&r

[dhill926]

2. good to see that people's health is a central concern....

jesus christ....

[BigmanPigman]

3. I hope each and everyone of them suffers...

both financially and physically. That is my fate if the ACA is repealed and replaced without subsidies. I am NOT exaggerating. This is my current and future reality at 54 years old. I saved every penny earned, worked 60 hour weeks as a teacher, and paid my taxes. Thanks Donald!