Affordable Care Act
Trump's position paper on health care reform and the ACA
Timeline
| 2017.07.18 | Trump has repeatedly told aides and advisers that he wants to end the subsidy payments supporting the Affordable Care Act, which would cause millions of vulnerable Americans to lose access to health coverage. politico.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2017.07.20 | The Trump administration has spent taxpayer money meant to encourage enrollment in the Affordable Care Act on a public relations campaign aimed at methodically strangling it. thedailybeast.com (See also Health Care, Department of Health and Human Services, Unprecedented Actions) |
| 2017.07.26 | In response to Senator Murkowski voting against the ACA repeal, Trump and his administration responded by tweeting at her and a phone call from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke letting them know the vote had put Alaska's future with the administration in jeopardy. adn.com (See also Health Care, Unpresidential Behavior, Department of the Interior, Ryan Zinke) |
| 2017.07.28 | A months-long effort by Senate Republicans to pass health-care legislation collapsed early Friday after GOP Senator John McCain joined two of his colleagues to block a stripped-down Obamacare repeal bill. bloomberg.com (See also Health Care) |
| 2017.07.29 | Trump on Saturday threatened to end key payments to insurance companies made under ObamaCare if a repeal-and-replace bill is not passed. thehill.com (See also Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2017.08.01 | Congressional Republicans moved to defuse Trump’s threat to cut off critical payments to health insurance companies, maneuvering around the president toward bipartisan legislation to shore up insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act. nytimes.com (See also Unprecedented Actions, Health Care) |
| 2017.08.10 | Actions by the Trump administration are triggering double-digit premium increases on individual health insurance policies purchased by many people, according to a nonpartisan study. apnews.com (See also Health Care, Unprecedented Actions) WASHINGTON (AP) — Actions by the Trump administration are triggering double-digit premium increases on individual health insurance policies purchased by many people, according to |
| 2017.08.15 | Premiums for the most popular health insurance plans would shoot up 20 percent next year, and federal budget deficits would increase by $194 billion in the coming decade, if Trump carried out his threat to end certain subsidies paid to insurance companies under the Affordable Care Act. nytimes.com (See also Health Care, Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2017.08.31 | The Department of Health and Human Services announced it's slashing the advertising and promotional budget for the Affordable Care Act for next year by 90%. axios.com (See also Department of Health and Human Services, Health Care, Assaults on Government) |
| 2017.09.20 | Donald Trump blocked a Twitter account from a woman with stage 4 cancer who has spoken out about the dangers of Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare. thinkprogress.org (See also Unpresidential Behavior, Health Care) |
| 2017.10.05 | With enrollment season on Nov. 1, the Health and Human Services Department has worked to suppress the number of people signing up by 1) slashing grants to groups that help consumers get insurance coverage, 2) cutting the enrollment period in half, 3) reducing the advertising budget by 90 percent, 4) announcing an outage schedule that would make the HealthCare.gov website significantly less available, and 5) not committing to funding the cost-sharing reductions that help 7 million lower income Americans afford out-of-pocket expenses. washingtonpost.com (See also Health Care, Assaults on Government) |
| 2017.10.12 | Donald Trump ended subsidies to health insurance companies that help pay out-of-pocket costs of low-income people, after he ordered sweeping changes in the nation’s insurance system, which will send insurance premiums soaring, and insurance companies fleeing from the health law’s online marketplaces. nytimes.com (See also Unprecedented Actions, Unpresidential Behavior, Health Care) |
| 2017.10.12 | Donald Trump plans to cut off subsidy payments to insurers selling ACA coverage in his most aggressive move yet to undermine his predecessor's health care law. politico.com (See also Health Care) |
| 2017.10.12 | Eighteen U.S. states sued Donald Trump’s administration on Friday to stop him from scrapping a key component of Obamacare, subsidies to insurers that help millions of low-income people pay medical expenses. reuters.com (See also Health Care, Legal Issues) |
| 2017.10.17 | A pair of leading Republican and Democratic senators reached an agreement Tuesday to fund key federal health-care subsidies that Donald Trump literally just ended days ago, and yet the president expressed support for the plan. washingtonpost.com (See also Health Care, Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2017.10.18 | Donald Trump backed away from his endorsement of a bipartisan Senate proposal to stabilize health insurance markets, throwing the legislative effort into doubt even as the chief architect of the deal predicted that it would become law before the end of the year. nytimes.com (See also Health Care, Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2017.10.20 | The percentage of U.S. adults lacking health insurance rose in the third quarter of 2017 to 12.3%, up 0.6 percentage points from the previous quarter and 1.4 points since the end of 2016, which is the highest recorded rate since 3 years of success declines with the Affordable Care Act. news.gallup.com (See also Health Care) |
| 2017.10.25 | Premiums for the most popular “Obamacare” plans are going up an average of 34 percent, due to Trump administration’s actions which are adding instability to the underlying problems of the health law's marketplaces. apnews.com (See also Health Care) |
| 2017.11.06 | The Trump administration has prepared an executive order that would unravel Obamacare's individual mandate, but has put it on hold to see whether repealing the penalties for going uninsured might be included in the Republican tax bill instead. washingtonexaminer.com (See also Health Care) |
| 2017.12.15 | A federal court issued a preliminary injunction on Friday blocking a Trump administration rule on insurance coverage of contraceptives for women, saying the rule contradicts the text of the Affordable Care Act by allowing employers to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage if they have religious or moral objections. nytimes.com (See also Health Care, Women, Legal Issues) |
| 2017.12.20 | Republicans are on the verge of passing the most significant overhaul of the tax code since 1986, after the Senate passed the GOP plan, cutting the corporate tax rate dramatically providing new breaks for businesses, lowering income tax bills in 2018 for the vast majority of households, though the wealthy would see far more relief than the middle class and working poor. washingtonpost.com (See also Unprecedented Actions, Economy, Trump Taxes) |
| 2017.12.22 | Almost 9 million people signed up for ACA coverage, slightly less than last year, but it had a shorter sign-up window, and its advertising budget was slashed by the Trump administration. axios.com (See also Health Care, Department of Health and Human Services) |
| 2017.12.25 | Donald Trump admitted that Republicans sabotaged the Affordable Care Act in their tax cut bill, and told people not to discuss the repeal to the media. mic.com (See also Health Care, Unpresidential Behavior) |
| 2018.01.23 | The Trump administration’s commission on the opioid crisis is a sham that will not produce meaningful public health outcomes, according to a member of said commision. splinternews.com (See also Health Care, Kellyanne Conway) |
| 2018.01.26 | Covered California, the state's ACA insurance exchange, has published the first estimates of what "Trumpcare" will cost in 2019, as premiums will increase by 16% to 30%. latimes.com (See also Health Care, Department of Health and Human Services) |
Assessments
- 2016.11.29 The Washington post reports on the likely impact on the ACA of Trump's pick for Secretary of health and Human service, Tom Price, who is a longtime critic of ACA. (Washington Post)
- 2016.12.27 The Washington Post reports on coal country Trump voters who now fear losing the ACA provision that allows longterm coal miners to receive disability benefits for black lung disease. (Washington Post)