Trump begins savage attack on Obamacare

In a move to shore up his sagging support from a shrinking base, not to mention his own party, President Donald Trump’s latest executive orders to cut subsidies and change the scope of Obamacare, comes as no real surprise to most observers.

Yet this move might just be the one to lend credence to popular wisdom’s most durable saying: the law of unintended consequences. By removing the subsidies for low-income insurees, he is bound to send insurance premiums sky high, and practically upend the market just when it needs stability.

During the early days of this administration, preceded by all of the various efforts to remove health coverage from more than 21 million Americans, it became clear that no matter what was said, or done, the GOP does not care about them, and Thursday’s announcement is no exception.

In a move that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called “sabotage” the order will end key payments for low-income to help pay for such things as co-pays and deductibles, among other out of pocket costs, to implode the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.

The effect of skyrocketing premium costs would increase in more areas than previously seen, and while the average increase was 9 percent, at  the top and the bottom ends was Rhode Island with a 1.3 percent increase and a 71 percent for Oklahoma.

Thursdays move will almost certainly, unless there is a Congressional intervention, send these markets tumbling with many companies departing the exchange, as a result.

In 2014 the GOP sued to remove the subsidies, saying that Obama had no constitutional grounds to do so, but with no explicit action from Congress, the judge ruled in favor of the opposition, but the ruling was put on hold.

"Based on guidance from the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services has concluded that there is no appropriation for cost-sharing reduction payments to insurance companies under Obamacare. In light of this analysis, the Government cannot lawfully make the cost-sharing reduction payments," the White House said in a statement late Thursday night.

Warming to the victory, staffers, most notably was press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who said, "The bailout of insurance companies through these unlawful payments is yet another example of how the previous administration abused taxpayer dollars and skirted the law to prop up a broken system. Congress needs to repeal and replace the disastrous Obamacare law and provide real relief to the American people,"

Partisanship rules the day in Washington, and nowhere is this seem more than in healthcare, especially as Trump erases anything, and everything, that President Obama did, no matter how beneficial. And, what could be of more benefit than healthcare?

With over six years of opportunity the GOP could have worked in a nonpartisanship manner to fix the resulting issues with the ACA, but they refused; now with a president who wants to be more of a bystander, he fashions a base for support that has the potential to jeopardize the health of millions of Americans.

For nearly two years Sens. Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray attempted to fund these cost reducing measures with their bipartisan committee, but this effort was put on hold with the recent last ditch effort by Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy to kill Obamacare, ended in defeat last month.

Most in Washington are predicting that Trump’s move could presage lawsuits, and in an era of suit, and countersuit, this is not entirely unexpected with this attempt to destabilize the law.

The Congressional Budget Office said in August that “about 1 million additional people would be uninsured in 2018 and insurance companies would raise premium prices by about 20 percent for ObamaCare plans if the payments were cut off,” reported The Hill.

They also noted that “halting the payments would increase the federal deficit by $194 billion through 2026, largely because federal assistance to buy ObamaCare plans rises when premiums do.”

In a related move, Trump also signed an order directing the federal government to move people towards health care pools that he says will help small business compete with large corporations in ensuring that their employees have adequate health care.

Advocating for lower cost, in his eyes, also means for most, the opportunity to have skimpier plans that offer less, such as maternal and mental health care. And, “Because both of these types of plans do not have to follow the same ObamaCare rules, such as minimum benefits standards, experts warn that healthier people could join these cheaper plans and leave only sicker people in ObamaCare plans. That could lead to a spike in premiums for ObamaCare plans or insurers simply dropping out of the market.”

Curiously, the order does not say whether people can join these plans, but it does note that it “will also allow people to use tax-advantaged accounts known as health reimbursement accounts to pay for their premiums.”

“New York's top insurance regulator, Maria Vullo, said Thursday that President Donald Trump's executive order unwinding certain Obamacare regulations would destabilize New York's insurance marketplace,” according to Crain’s New York Business.

“Trump's order, signed Thursday morning, directs federal agencies to consider options to make cheaper, less comprehensive health plans available to more Americans. It offers association health plans as one way to accomplish that goal. The agencies have 60 days to consider proposing regulations, followed by a public comment period, so any changes are not expected to take effect until next year,” they also noted.

Notably, these “plans also are not required to pay for a certain percentage of the total cost of coverage, unlike the products sold to individuals on the marketplaces. These employers are regulated by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and are not subject to many Department of Financial Services’ rules.”

Karen Ignagni, chief executive of EmblemHealth, said while the order could lower prices for younger, healthier consumers, the overall impact on the state’s individual insurance market could be “devastating,” adding that, “If you create an incentive to remove low-risk individuals from pools, it will make costs soar for those who remain.”

There is definitely a tsunami, of sorts, brewing and this effort by Trump to win partisan points will prove to be one more item in what has been, so far, a disastrous presidency.