ACA participation down substantially at signup deadline
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans signing up for coverage through HealthCare.gov dropped by a half-million for 2017, as efforts by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to demolish the Affordable Care Act propelled the first enrollment decline in its history.
The lower total, with 9.2 million consumers choosing health plans in ACA marketplaces through the enrollment deadline Tuesday, marks a striking turnabout from the trend as former President Barack Obama’s administration neared its end — when sign-ups for coverage under the law were running steadily ahead of a year ago.
The volume plummeted, in particular, during the final week of the three-month enrollment season — falling from nearly 700,000 in 2016 to just over 375,000.
That last week traditionally is a peak time when eligible customers race to get ACA health plans, most of them with federal subsidies. This time, however, the Trump White House directed federal health officials to halt all advertising and other enrollment-outreach activities for the last six days of the sign-up period.
The administration partly retracted the directive the next day, but the seesawing decisions exacerbated what had already been considerable public uncertainty over whether ACA health plans will continue through all of 2017, though insurers have signed contracts requiring them to do so.
The absence of the customary deadline surge “could very well be the result of tremendous confusion and uncertainty surrounding the future of the health law, as well as the last-minute pulling of some outreach advertising,” said Larry Levitt, senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The numbers released Friday ended speculation that the Trump administration might break with its predecessor’s practice of announcing soon after each enrollment season how many people had chosen health plans. But the figures immediately touched off a fresh spate of the partisan warring that has been building since Mr. Trump’s election handed the GOP its first realistic chance of fulfilling its goal of abolishing the 2010 law.
In sharp contrast to the praise that Obama-era spokespersons lavished on the final tallies, Mr. Trump appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services gave the numbers with a sharp jab.
“Obamacare has failed the American people, with one broken promise after another,” an HHS spokesman said, noting that some insurers abandoned this year’s marketplaces while a popular and significant tier of ACA coverage increased an average of 25 percent.
The chairman of the influential Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said, “Enrollment numbers are down and costs are up. These cost hikes are exactly the reason why Republicans are committed to repealing and replacing Obamacare.”
But leading groups that support the law sought to portray the figures in a different light.
Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a consumer health lobby, accused the administration of “sabotage” of the enrollment process by withdrawing some advertising and sowing confusion over the marketplaces’ future. Mr. Trump’s first executive order as president called for agencies to undo some ACA rules, Mr. Pollack noted.