The Trump administration is announcing sharp cuts in programs promoting health care enrollment under the Affordable Care Act for next year.
In a call with reporters, Health and Human Services officials say advertising will be cut to $10 million for the 2018 open enrollment season. That’s down from $100 million for the 2017 sign-up season.
Funding for consumer helpers called “navigators” will also be cut, from $62.5 million for 2017, to about $36 million for next year.
Andy Slavitt, former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator under the Obama administration, said that the Trump administration’s decision to cut funding for navigators will hit hardest in poor, rural communities where insurers may not fill in the gap on outreach.
“These aren’t budget decisions … these are all funds that come out of user fees paid by the insurance companies. This wouldn’t cost the federal government a nickel,” said Slavitt. “They’re basically not going to not us the user fees … it’s hard to interpret this as anything other than being done out of spite.”
Administration officials say the government hasn’t gotten much bang for its buck as far as ACA advertising and the navigator program, with some enrollment centers signing up very few customers.
Democrats are likely to accuse the administration of trying to undermine the program, which President Donald Trump says is going to “implode.”
Slavitt notes that, In addition to cutting funding for enrollment efforts, the Trump administration cut the enrollment period in half this year to just six weeks, compared to three months over the last few years.
“I think it’s their hope that at the end of the enrollment period that they can announce significantly lower enrollment. At least, that appears to be their hope. It that’s their objective, I’m sure they can achieve it,” Slavitt Said.
Consumer advocacy group Protect Our Care denounced the Trump administration’s move.
“It’s one thing to tweet about your opposition to a law, it’s another to undermine it, sabotage it and refuse to do your duty,” the group said in a statement Thursday.
–CNBC’s Bertha Coombs and the Associated Press contributed to this report.