In what looks like sabotage to anyone with eyes, President Donald Trump, who could not repeal (or replace) “Obamacare” through his lame-dick Republican-led Congress, has taken it upon himself to just fuck with all aspects of the program, effectively making it “dead” through his asinine actions.
The cost of President Littlefingers’ immature and indefensible actions, however, is that millions of Americans with insurance through the Affordable Care Act could find themselves locked into health plans they do not want for the next year, according to a new report by the Washington Post.
The administration has set forth a new open-enrollment schedule that begins in two weeks. And the Post says that is part of the problem. It reports:
The complication arises when people who already have health plans under the law are automatically re-enrolled in the same plan. In the past, a few million consumers each year have been auto-enrolled and then were sent government notices encouraging them to check whether they could find better or more affordable coverage.
This time, according to a federal document obtained by the Washington Post, the automatic enrollment will take place after it is too late to make any changes. Auto-enrollment will occur immediately after the last day of the ACA sign-up season, which the Trump administration has shortened, leaving the vast majority of such consumers stranded without any way to switch to a plan they might prefer.
That inability is particularly problematic at the moment, health policy specialists say, because political turmoil surrounding the sprawling health care law has contributed to spikes in 2018 insurance rates that might catch customers by surprise, as well as widespread public confusion about this fifth year’s enrollment season.
So, basically, there is no real choice here.
This year’s insurance-enrollment period runs from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15—only half the time of open enrollment of the past three years. Trump also slashed by 90 percent the outreach and advertising budget used to let people know about the shortened period, as well as cut by 40 percent “navigators” who help people sign up.
Last week, Trump also ended billions of dollars in subsidies for lower-income Americans, in addition to some other bullshit.
The Post reports that last year, 2.8 million Americans were automatically re-enrolled.
Let’s hope these same millions don’t enroll in some crappy plan they can’t afford without being able to change it.
Your president.