For the last several months, Iowa has been trying to work with the federal government on shoring up its healthcare marketplace so its citizens can continue to have access to more affordable care. But, in response to their request, the Trump administration told HHS to tell Iowa, “No.” Or, quite possibly, “Hell no.” Either way, he’s denied Iowa a true chance to shore up their market.
This is the most direct evidence yet that Trump is actively working to sabotage Obamacare so that he can maybe actually make a true statement for once - that Obamacare is failing. Already he’s cut enrollment time in half, announced a blackout schedule that would make Healthcare.gov even less available than it is, and threatened to withhold cost-sharing subsidies from the insurers for lower-income applicants (which is causing enough uncertainty to destabilize the markets).
Iowa asked the federal government for a type of waiver that would allow them to adjust how they’re working to institute Obamacare, as long as they can prove they’re doing it in a way that won’t raise premiums and cost people their existing coverage. They were trying to foster more competition, and thus, better prices…kind of like one of the things the GOP keeps screaming about.
We guess Trump just suddenly forgot about GOP talking points, though.
Iowa’s insurance commissioner was trying to stabilize their markets and told the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (the agency that’s responsible for accepting or rejecting applications for this) that over 20,000 middle class farmers, retirees and even self-employed Iowans would either find themselves uninsured soon, or would leave Iowa entirely.
Is it normal for Trump to weigh in on this kind of thing? No. According to former Obama officials, Obama only weighed in on these decisions when the case was very unusual. CMS also sent such requests to him with recommendations so Obama would have everything he needed to make the best call.
It’s not just Iowa, though. The Trump administration is delaying another such application from Oklahoma, who has decided to withdraw it over the delays. They actually granted one for Minnesota, but it really doesn’t matter all that much since they also punished Minnesota by yanking $369 million from another program that helped people with incomes between 138 percent and 200 percent above the federal poverty level afford insurance.
Trump’s efforts to force the ACA to fail are picking up in his desperation to pass some kind of landmark legislation and look like the successful president he’s not. Forget the fact that the CBO has said every plan the GOP has put forward will be disastrous for lower-income and middle class Americans. He promised to repeal Obamacare, so that’s what he’s going to do no matter who it hurts.
Featured image via Mark Wilson/Getty Images
