Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson released the following statement denouncing the Trump Administration’s action to end all advertising and other outreach activities for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplaces by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the critical last few days of Open Enrollment:
“This action by the Trump Administration is designed to undermine the ACA Marketplaces in 2017,” said Congresswoman Johnson. “The Administration has issued this order during the last critical days before the January 31 enrollment deadline, when enrollment usually surges.”
The last week of the sign-up period in January has always tended to draw younger enrollees, who often wait until the very last minute to sign up. So, HHS had planned a major advertising campaign specifically aimed at younger adults. It is this advertising campaign that is being halted. If there end up being fewer young adults in the Marketplaces, the risk pools in the Marketplaces would be less healthy – destabilizing the Marketplaces for the future. This destructive action by the Administration will actually waste, not save, taxpayer dollars – because the government had already purchased the ads that were going to run.
Before this action, enrollment in the 2017 Marketplaces had been going well. As of December 24, more than 11.5 million people nationwide had signed up for 2017 Marketplace plans, higher than the same time last year.
“This action by the Administration is a deliberate attempt to sabotage the Affordable Care Act,” concluded Congresswoman Johnson. “While Democrats are working to ensure more and more people have affordable health coverage, Republicans are once again trying to undermine the progress that has been made to ensure 20 million more Americans have health coverage and to bring us back to the days of the broken health care system that existed before the ACA was enacted.”
