Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday slammed Obamacare for its “ongoing collapse” and blasted Democrats for how they “won’t lift a finger to try to clean up the mess they created.”
“Obamacare is collapsing. You’d have to be blinded by partisanship to believe otherwise,” said Pence, speaking at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington.
He highlighted news from some insurers that have decided not to participate in the Obamacare-created exchanges in 2018, leaving customers who buy the tax-subsidized plan with few or no options to access the same coverage next year. The Pence speech, however, came just as insurer Centene said it was expanding its presence in some states.
The Trump administration has been accelerating its criticisism of Obamacare as the Senate nears a self-imposed summer deadline to pass a bill to repeal and replace portions of the law. The Department of Health and Human Services released a report Monday that suggested fewer people were keeping their healthcare plans sold on the exchange, largely because of affordability, and a second report Tuesday showing that a growing number of counties are facing one or no option for buying subsidized coverage.
Pence projected a U.S. map of counties facing few insurance options next year behind him as he spoke, saying the law was “clearly in a death spiral” and vowed President Trump would help Congress pass new healthcare legislation. Though he didn’t provide specific details about policies in the bill, he said it would lower costs, increase quality and give customers more choices, and allow states to craft their own plans.
Critics of the narrative being advanced by the Trump administration point to moves by Republicans over the years and by Trump to undermine the law, moves that they say have injected uncertainty into the marketplace and caused insurers to become skittish about selling plans. The Trump administration has not pledged, for instance, to pay the cost-sharing reduction subsidies that help insurers reduce out-of-pocket medical costs to low-income customers, and has not said if it will enforce the individual mandate that requires Americans to have health insurance or pay a penalty. In choosing to exit the exchange, some insurers also have pointed to millions of dollars in losses as not enough young, healthy people signed up for plans. The Senate healthcare bill has not been released, and details about what it contains are not clear. Republican senators have been meeting three times a week over lunch and have had conversations with the Congressional Budget Office, the government’s scorekeeping agency.
Americans’ sentiments on how Obamacare’s provisions have affected them have been mixed, with Republicans and Democrats seizing on narratives that have advanced their objectives. Some middle-class customers who buy health insurance on the exchanges have complained about escalating costs, narrow networks and high deductibles that have deeply strained their finances.
Others have benefited from its provisions. For instance, a large share of customers on the exchange, those who make roughly less than $48,000 a year, generally qualify for subsidies that help make coverage more affordable and cushion the effect of rising premiums, while others qualify for Medicaid at little or no cost to them. Americans who have pre-existing conditions have said they are concerned about the law’s protections being eliminated, as before Obamacare they could be turned away for coverage.
