This is what TrumpCare looks like.
Remember when we said that the uncertainty caused by the Trump Administration would undermine insurance markets? Well, it’s happening. According to the LA Times, health insurers are making plans to dramatically raise premiums or exit marketplaces. And who do they blame? Trump.
“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.”
“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.”
“’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.’”
“‘There is no consistency to the messages,’ said Ceci Connolly, chief executive of the Alliance of Community Health Plans, whose members include leading health systems such as Kaiser Permanente and Geisinger Health Plan. ‘We are very confused.’”