Congressional Democrats are demanding that the Trump administration explain how it will improve Obamacare’s insurance exchanges, after a federal watchdog found current efforts lacking, buttressing their case that the administration is sabotaging the health law.
“The nation’s health department, which has the self-identified objective of ‘improving Americans’ access to health care,’ should not be working against the interests of patients and families and their goals of obtaining quality, affordable health insurance,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter Monday to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma.
The letter was signed by Sens. Patty Murray of Washington, Ron Wyden of Oregon, and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, and by Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J.
In a scathing report released last week, the Government Accountability Office found that the administration did a poor job overseeing the law’s insurance exchanges for the 2018 open enrollment.
The watchdog agency found the Trump administration didn’t measure the consumer experience on healthcare.gov, which CMS manages, despite an administration goal of improving the consumer experience. Residents from 38 states use the website to buy Obamacare plans.
GAO also said that CMS didn’t do a good job of determining how to allocate funding for nonprofit “navigators” that help sign people up for Obamacare.
The GAO gave a series of recommendations for the administration, most notably setting an enrollment goal for sign-ups. But the administration disagreed with that recommendation.
The Democrats requested that HHS hold a staff briefing on the upcoming Obamacare open enrollment set to start in a few months.
“If the department is electing to not implement any of GAO’s recommendations, the briefing should address how and why that decision was made, including any efforts to achieve GAO’s goals in alternative ways,” the letter said.
