On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced that his administration would discontinue subsidies for insurance to lower-income individuals under the Affordable Care Act, known widely as Obamacare. Without these subsidies, costs for millions of Americans will rise.
The timing of Trump’s decision, one that he has been teasing for months, could not come at a worse time for the health care system. At the end of September, states finalized their deals with insurance companies for 2018 — signing contracts to lock in premiums — and open enrollment begins in just over two weeks, a time where millions of consumers will buy plans for 2018.
“The timing is really unfortunate,” Sabrina Corlette, a professor at the Georgetown’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms, told Yahoo Finance. “It’s very late in the process.”
The news has not been well received by any stakeholders in the industry, including insurers, doctors, patients, or hospitals. And insurance stocks tanked following the announcement.
“There’s no question that the actions of the past 24 hours are driven more by a political animus and less about the best policy for millions of consumers who are buying insurance,” she said.
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