New Administration Plans to Reinstate Cuts to Funding for ACA Outreach and Enrollment Help

By Rachel Swindle, Jalisa Clark, and Justin Giovannelli

One of many first actions by the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies underneath the Trump administration was to announce excessive cuts in funding for Navigators, the Reasonably priced Care Act (ACA) grant program for organizations that present outreach, training, and enrollment help actions.

The 90 p.c discount in program funding couldn’t have come at a worse time. A proposed rule by HHS threatens to trigger 2 million People to lose protection, failure to increase the improved premium tax credit might improve web premiums 25 to 100%, and Congress is contemplating drastic cuts to Medicaid.  As obstacles to protection entry proceed to rise, the Navigator funding cuts will make it much more difficult for People within the 31 states utilizing HealthCare.gov to enroll in inexpensive well being care protection. 

Whereas devastating, this announcement is just not surprising. The funding cuts replicate reductions made throughout the first administration as a broader effort to weaken the ACA, and the dangerous impacts are prone to repeat as nicely. 

In a brand new submit for the Commonwealth Fund’s To the Level weblog, CHIR’s Rachel Swindle, Jalisa Clark, and Justin Giovannelli dispute the rationale behind the funding cuts offered by the Trump administration and spotlight the gravity of decreasing the Navigator program and outreach and enrollment help. You possibly can learn the total submit right here.