President Trump finally dropped the ax with timing that could inflict maximal disruption on the Affordable Care Act enrollment season scheduled to begin in two weeks.
.. Hundreds more consumers than usual have phoned its call center in recent days, uncertain whether they can still get and afford health plans.
.. In Washington state, Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler also told insurers to file two rates. “In order to get the smoke to clear,” he said, the marketplace there “may consider holding back on when” enrollment begins.
Maryland is in worse shape, because the two insurers in its marketplace were told by regulators to file only rates that assumed the CSR payments would continue.
Trump governs by disruption — and overloads all the circuits
Nine months into his first term, President Trump is perfecting a style of leadership commensurate with his campaign promise to disrupt business as usual in Washington. Call it governing by cattle prod.
.. In the face of his own unhappiness, the president is trying to raise the pain level wherever he can.
.. He cares about ratings, praise and success. Absent demonstrable achievements, he reverts to what worked during the campaign, which is to depend on his own instincts and to touch the hot buttons that roused his voters in 2016. As president, he has never tried seriously to reach beyond that base.
.. Trump has managed to turn an issue that once was about police violence in minority communities into a cultural battle about patriotism, the flag and pride in the military. His critics are now on the defensive.
.. There’s little doubt that part of the president’s motivation is to undo what former president Barack Obama did. He campaigned against Obamacare, although his prescriptions for what should replace it lacked consistency or, for that matter, clear alternatives
.. he has decided to force Congress to act on whether to fund the insurance subsidies that help lower-income Americans purchase health insurance. That’s another way he’s trying to bring the Democrats to the table,
.. Trump is trying to ratchet up attention to those problems but by threatening to walk away from the nuclear agreement has created a rift with U.S. partners
.. Foreign policy experts worry that by opening up a new confrontation with Iran, the administration may be stretching its capacity to handle both matters with the patience, skill and delicacy they require.
.. The president has proved himself capable and willing to start controversies and policy confrontations. That’s what being a disrupter is all about. But there is more to the presidency than initiating conflict, and on that measure, Trump has much to prove.
The worst GOP healthcare bill yet
Ezra and Sarah parse through Graham-Cassidy, the latest Republican repeal bill.
White paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3025749
Trump Signs Order Paving Way for Health-Care Changes
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing federal agencies to pursue sweeping regulatory changes to the health-care system, the administration’s first move in what it promises will be an extended campaign to weaken the Affordable Care Act without Congress.
.. The order directs agencies to ease rules that allow small businesses, and possibly individuals, to band together in arrangements called “association health plans,” letting them buy cheaper, less-comprehensive plans outside the ACA market.
.. Critics say these new options would drain the ACA market of younger, healthier customers, sending costs soaring for older and sicker people who remain in the regulated market. And if those healthier people do get sick, the critics say, they may find their coverage inadequate.
.. “Having failed to repeal the law in Congress, the president is sabotaging the system, using a wrecking ball to single-handedly rip apart our health-care system,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.). “This order couldn’t be further from the ‘great health care’ the president promised.”