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Showing Original Post only (View all)Trumps On The Verge Of Exploding The Health Insurance Market [View all]
Source: Huffington Post
President Donald Trump has had his finger on the detonator of the bomb to blow up Obamacare for months. Now he may be about to press it.
Trump told advisers earlier this week that he wants to cut off billions of dollars in payments to health insurance companies that serve the poorest enrollees in the Affordable Care Act exchanges, Politico reported Friday.
If Trump follows through on this threat, he could wreak havoc on the health insurance system. Insurance companies are likely to hike premiums or to stop selling to people who buy coverage via the exchanges, like HealthCare.gov and Covered California, or directly (rather than obtaining coverage through their employers or government programs like Medicare and Medicaid).
The results would be higher prices and fewer, if any, choices for consumers, and the effects could be felt quickly because many states would allow insurers to drop their customers right away in the absence of these payments. In short, this part of the health insurance market could fall apart under Trumps watch if he doesnt pay the money the federal government owes.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-blow-up-health-insurance-market_us_591f541be4b034684b0c6212?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Trump is betting that if enough people are deprived of their healthcare, the American people will blame Democrats for not supporting the Republican health plan.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/us/politics/trump-death-spiral-affordable-care-act.html
Trump, Shouting Death Spiral, Has Nudged Affordable Care Act Downward
WASHINGTON When Aetna, the health insurance giant, announced this month that it was pulling out of the Affordable Care Acts insurance exchange in Virginia in 2018, President Trump responded on Twitter: Death spiral!
When Humana announced plans to leave all the health laws marketplaces next year, the president chimed in, Obamacare continues to fail.
Left unremarked on was a big reason for the instability: The Trump administration and Congress are rattling the markets.
The administrations refusal to guarantee payment of subsidies to health insurance companies, the murky outlook for the Affordable Care Act in Congress and doubts about enforcement of the mandate for most people to have insurance are driving up insurance prices for 2018, insurers say in rate requests filed with state officials.