The Trump administration said it cut the navigator programs because recipients had not met previous enrollment goals (PDF). But navigators say this deliberately ignores the work they do, from educating people about their health care options to convincing those they do enroll to persuade others to do the same. For them, the dialing-back of the program reeks of a White House trying to gut a law they couldn’t legislatively undo.
And they have a case. While the funding cuts to the navigator program were draconian, they were also just the latest in a months-long effort to unwind Obamacare. To date:
• The president has signed executive orders weakening the mandates requiring individuals to purchase insurance.
• His administration has ended contracts with firms who have provided in-person assistance to states using healthcare.gov.
• The Department of Health and Human Services has produced videos designed to undermine public support for Obamacare while using funds that were appropriate to help promote the law.
• HHS has reconfigured its website to make enrollment information harder to access.
• There has been little apparent effort to engage non-government partners that have worked in the past to reach uninsured populations.
• And at the end of August, CMS announced that it would slash funds for marketplace outreach by 90 percent.
• Even more recently, the HHS decided not to participate in pre-enrollment events with a health advocacy groups.
• Additionally, HHS announced that it will shut down the federal exchange site for 12 hours for all but one Sunday during the open enrollment season.
Trump may feel that he is only damaging Obama's legacy with these actions, but "proving" that the Affordable Care Act is broken and does not function properly.
But there are real Americans lives that will be lost through these actions, and he clearly does not give a shit about any of them.
All this tangerine tinted asshole cares about is getting payback, and he does not care how many people have to suffer of die while he gets it.
Source http://ift.tt/2fBk0Hl
