Top Trump administration health official Seema Verma said Wednesday that the federal government will not devote more funding to Obamacare ads for the 2019 coverage year, after slashing outreach funding for 2018 by 90 percent.
Verma, head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, told the Washington Examiner in an interview that she was pleased with the effort the administration made last year. She also defended the decision to not set a sign-up target for the 2019 open enrollment, set to start in November.
“We will be continuing with our approach that we had last year with the same level and same approach,” Verma said in response to a question on whether the administration will devote more funding for 2019 open enrollment. “We had very high rates of customer satisfaction.”
The Trump administration devoted $10 million last year for advertising and marketing for Obamacare for the 2018 coverage year, well below the $100 million spent at the tail end of the Obama administration for the 2017 coverage year.
[Also read: House bill to delay or repeal parts of Obamacare would cost nearly $52B: CBO]
The administration argued last year that more outreach funding was not necessary because Obamacare is already well known.
Democrats and pro-Obamacare groups said the decision to cut outreach funding was an effort to sabotage the law, compounded by other administration actions like shortening the open enrollment window by six weeks.
But Verma said that the approach the administration took last year to deliver more targeted funding had paid dividends as CMS sought to improve the customer experience for healthcare.gov, which the agency oversees. Residents in 38 states use healthcare.gov to buy health insurance, and 12 states and the District of Columbia run their own insurance exchanges.
The administration signed up 8.8 million people for Obamacare under the federally run healthcare.gov for the 2018 coverage year, compared to 9.2 million people for the 2017 coverage year.
The administration also cut grant funding to nonprofit “navigators” that help sign up people for Obamacare coverage. CMS distributed $10 million in grants to navigators for 2019 open enrollment, compared to $36 million for 2018.
Verma also defended CMS’ decision to not set an enrollment target for Obamacare signups as the Obama administration had done. A report from the Government Accountability Office recommended the administration set a target in addition to several over recommendations to improve the customer experience.
“What we are working on is making sure there is a positive experience,” she said. “I don’t think we are going to be able to control enrollment because there are a lot of factors beyond our control.”
