Temporary Shutdowns of Healthcare.gov Termed ACA Sabotage
It’s become a bit of a sport. Websites and media outlets are tracking ways that the Trump administration has been working to undermine the Affordable Care Act. Organizations such as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), Health Care for American Now!, and Families USA, have websites tracking the actions taken by the administration that they believe threaten the health of the ACA, starting as far back as President Trump’s executive order issued on January 20, the day he took office. That executive order authorized the federal government to take actions to minimize the impacts of the ACA on states, individuals, families, healthcare providers, health insurers, patients, recipients of healthcare services, purchasers of health insurance or makers of medical devices, products, or medications to the maximum extent permitted by law.
Among the actions taken by the Trump administration in 2017 have been to reduce this year’s ACA enrollment period from 90 to 45 days, and drop by 90% the funds used to advertise the ACA open enrollment period, a reduction in the millions of dollars. This will result in less marketing to promote the upcoming ACA enrollment period, and fewer trained representatives provided by nonprofit organizations to help low-income families understand their health insurance options on the federal government exchange. In addition, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently told staff from regional offices they could not participate in healthcare marketplace enrollment events as they had in previous years.
One of the latest actions identified to be part of this sabotage campaign is the recent decision by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare (CMS) to temporarily shut down Healthcare.gov for maintenance from 12 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET every Sunday, except for December 10, during the ACA open enrollment period that runs through December 15. CMS will also shut down the federal exchange overnight on the first day of open enrollment, November 1.
Four Democrats in the U.S. Senate – Senators Corey Booker (D-NJ), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) – have questioned this decision in a letter sent to the HHS Office of Inspector General (HHSOIG).
“There has been no satisfactory explanation for why these shutdowns are necessary, and they appear to be part of a pattern by the Trump Administration to sabotage the Affordable Care Act,” wrote the Senators. “We are concerned that these extended maintenance outages will put a time squeeze on consumers seeking to buy health insurance from the federal Healthcare.gov site, especially when coupled with the Administration’s decision to cut the length of open enrollment in half.”
The Senators requested that HHSOIG include an analysis on the rationale for the shutdowns and their impact on use of the federal healthcare exchange as part of an “operation readiness” analysis being conducted of ACA open enrollment systems.
Don White, a spokesperson for the HHSOIG confirmed that the agency had received the letter. “It is currently being evaluated for response as we evaluate all letters that are received from Congress or the public,” he told The ACA Times.
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