Page 10A
NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
Saturday, October 14, 2017
Trump’s blow to ‘Obamacare’ jolts health consumers, politics
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi-
dent Donald Trump’s abrupt move
to cut off federal payments to
insurers jolted America’s health care
and political worlds alike on Friday,
threatening to boost premiums for
millions, disrupt insurance markets
and shove Republicans into a
renewed civil war over their efforts
to shred “Obamacare.”
Defiant Democrats, convinced
they have important leverage,
promised to press for a bipartisan
deal to restore the money by year’s
end. That drive could split the GOP.
On one side: pragmatists seeking
to avoid political damage from
hurting consumers. On the other:
conservatives demanding a major
weakening of the Affordable Care
Act as the price for returning the
money.
“The American people will
know exactly where to place the
blame,” declared Senate Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., all
but daring Trump to aggravate what
could be a major issue in the 2018
congressional elections.
The money goes to companies
for lowering out-of-pocket costs
like co-payments and deductibles
for low- and middle-income
customers. It will cost about $7
billion this year and help more than
6 million people.
Ending the payments would
affect insurers because President
Barack Obama’s law requires them
to reduce their poorer customers’
costs. Carriers are likely to recoup
the lost money by increasing 2018
premiums for people buying their
own health insurance policies.
The National Association of
Insurance Commissioners estimates
that Trump’s move would produce
a 12 percent to 15 percent upsurge
in premiums, while the nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office has
put the figure at 20 percent. That’s
on top of premium increases from
growing medical costs.
Experts say the political
instability over Trump’s effort to
undermine Obama’s health care law
could also prompt more insurers to
leave markets. As Trump frequently
points out, next year about half of
U.S. counties will have only one
insurer on “Obamacare’s” online
marketplaces, up from the one-third
of counties with one carrier in 2017.
Trump relished his latest blow
against the law that he pledged
to repeal during his presidential
campaign, only to see the effort
crash in the GOP-run Senate this
summer. He’s long derided the
subsidies as bailouts to insurers,
even though the payments and the
cost reductions for consumers are
required by law.
The scrapping of subsidies would
affect millions more consumers
in states won by Trump last year,
including Florida, Alabama and
Mississippi, than in states won by
Democrat Hillary Clinton. Nearly
70 percent of the 6 million who
benefit from the cost-sharing subsi-
dies are in states that voted for the
Republican.
“Congress, they forgot what
their pledges were,” Trump told
conservative activists at the Values
Voter Summit, recalling GOP
candidates’ repeated vows to repeal
Obama’s law. “So we’re going a
little different route. But you know
what? In the end, it’s going to be
just as effective, and maybe it will
even be better.”
He later reiterated his belief that
his move would pressure Demo-
crats to bargain over major changes
in the law and said, “There’s going
to be time to negotiate health care
BRIEFLY
Trump won’t pull out of ‘worst’ Iran
deal — for now
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on
Friday angrily accused Iran of violating the landmark 2015
international nuclear accord, blaming the Iranians for a litany
of sinister behavior and hitting their main military wing with
anti-terror penalties. But Trump, breaking his campaign
pledge to rip up the agreement, did not pull the U.S. out or
re-impose nuclear sanctions.
He still might, he was quick to add. For now, he’s tossing
the issue to Congress and the other nations in the seven-
country accord, telling lawmakers to toughen the law that
governs U.S. participation and calling on the other parties
to fix a series of deficiencies. Those include the scheduled
expiration of key restrictions under “sunset provisions”
that begin to kick in in 2025, as well as the omission of
provisions on ballistic missile testing and terrorism.
Without the fixes, Trump warned, he would likely pull
the U.S. out of the deal — which he has called the worst
in U.S. history — and slap previously lifted U.S. sanctions
back into place. That would probably be a fatal blow for the
seven-party accord.
Under U.S. law, Trump faces a Sunday deadline to certify
to Congress whether Iran is complying with the accord. That
notification must take place every 90 days, a timetable that
Trump detests. Since taking office, he has twice reluctantly
certified that Iran is fulfilling its commitments.
On Friday, he said he would not do so again.
Teams report first progress against wine
country wildfires
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump speaks to the 2017 Value Voters Summit
Friday in Washington.
that’s going to be good for every-
body.”
Trump’s move was hailed by
conservative groups including
Heritage Action for America and
Freedom Partners, backed by the
Koch brothers.
But rallying against it were
medical and consumer groups
including the American Heart Asso-
ciation, the American College of
Physicians and insurance industry
behemoths including Blue Cross
Blue Shield Association.
Nineteen Democratic state
attorneys general are suing Trump
over the stoppage. Attorneys
generals from California, Kentucky,
Massachusetts and New York were
among those who filed the lawsuit
in federal court in California to stop
Trump’s attempt “to gut the health
and well-being of our country.”
A federal judge has found that
Congress never properly approved
the payments. The subsidies have
continued under Obama and Trump
until now, despite prior Trump
threats to block them.
Schumer told reporters that
Trump’s “threats and bullying are
not going to work.” He said he saw
a good chance of forcing money for
the cost sharing reductions into a
massive spending bill Congress is
expected to approve late this year.
Democrats think Trump would
have little clout to block a bipar-
tisan deal, citing support for the
payments by some Republicans
and polls showing the public would
fault the GOP for any failure. Some
Republicans privately agree.
“Now, President Trump has his
fingerprints all over the knife,” said
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen,
who heads Senate Democrats’
campaign committee.
In a survey released Friday by the
nonpartisan Kaiser Family Founda-
tion, 7 in 10 said the administration
should help Obama’s law work, not
undermine it, including nearly half
of Republicans. The same group
conducted an August poll showing
6 in 10 people would blame Trump
and the GOP for future health care
woes.
Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.,
and Patty Murray, D-Wash., have
been seeking a deal that Alexander
said in a recent interview would
reinstate the payments for two years.
He said in exchange, Republicans
want “meaningful flexibility for
states” to offer lower-cost insurance
policies with less coverage than
Obama’s law mandates.
Republicans are divided over
that effort.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C.,
who leads the conservative House
Freedom Caucus, said in an inter-
view that he’s willing to back the
payments if they’re “part of a transi-
tion from Obamacare to something
else” with greater state flexibility
than Alexander and Murray are
discussing. Another conservative
leader, Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C.,
said the payments should be revived
“under no circumstance.”
Some GOP leaders have
expressed openness to continuing
the payments, including Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McCon-
nell, R-Ky., who’s said he wants
them accompanied by significant
changes. House Ways and Means
Committee Chairman Kevin Brady,
R-Texas, said this summer that the
payments should be continued,
citing their impact on premiums.
Moderates like Sen. Susan
Collins, R-Maine, said Friday that
halting the payments would make
insurance costs “unaffordable for
some people.” Rep. Ileana Ros-Le-
htinen, R-Fla., tweeted the cuts
“will mean more uninsured in my
district.”
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