Donald Trump Wants To Cut Of Obamacare Subsidy Payments
Donald Trump’s latest attack on Obamacare could leave millions without insurance.
Donald Trump has told his advisers that he wants to stop paying Affordable Care Act insurer subsidies, according to a new report.
The report which first appeared in Politico would be a huge blow to the nation’s insurance market potentially ripping care away from millions who receive insurance through Obamacare.
Without funding from the government, the insurances exchanges would likely fall into chaos because insurers would raise premiums dramatically or just pull out of markets entirely.
Trump’s advisers do not support the idea of cutting off payments, however, Trump’s strategy is clearly to wreck the existing insurance market in an attempt to force Democrats to the negotiation table.
According to the Politico report, “Trump told aides in a Tuesday Oval Office meeting that he wants to end the payments to insurers because he doesn’t gain anything by continuing them, according to a senior White House adviser. ‘Why the hell would we?’ he asked about continuing the payments, according to the adviser. Trump added that if Congress wants the subsidies, lawmakers would find a way to pay for them, the adviser said.”
The federal subsidy payment to insurers are about $7 billion for 2017 and are meant to reduce the deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for low and middle-income Americans.
Roughly 7 million people have insurance through the exchanges would be impacted and face losing their insurance if the funding is cut off.
