DeGette: Trump’s Further ACA Sabotage, Eliminating CSRs, Will Hurt Millions

Denver– Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO), Chief Deputy Whip, said President Donald J. Trump's plan to eliminate health insurance cost sharing reduction payments is a blatant effort to sabotage the Affordable Care Act that will hurt millions of Americans.

"This latest act of sabotage by the failing Trump presidency against the ACA will cause a million people to lose insurance in just the first year, drive up premiums and out-of-pocket payments for the rest and cause damaging instability in the insurance markets," DeGette said. "President Trump is trying to achieve via edict what he couldn't do through legislation: Dismantle the ACA and replace it with a cruel system that punishes the most vulnerable. This is Trumpcare by a thousand cuts.

"Congress needs to act immediately to provide funding for the cost-sharing reductions," DeGette noted. "And we must work together in a bipartisan fashion to improve health care coverage in this country, rather than ripping it to bits."

DeGette is a sponsor of the Marketplace Certainty Act (H.R. 3258), which would permanently fund the cost sharing reductions (CSRs) at no taxpayer expense.

The ACA makes CSRs available to insurance exchange enrollees with incomes that are less than 250 percent of the Federal Poverty Level – approximately $30,000 per year or $61,000 per year for families. The payments substantially lower deductibles, copayments, coinsurance and out-of-pocket limits. Maintaining CSRs is crucial to keeping coverage affordable and health plans afloat. In 2016, seven million people received the payments 28,929 of them in Colorado.

The Congressional Budget Office reported in August that eliminating CSRs would cause one million people to lose insurance in the 2018 plan year and a million more per year after that, increase the number of people living in areas with no insurers that offer non-group plans, and cause premiums to increase for others – with an estimated 20% rise for silver plans in 2018 and 25% in 2020. CBO also reported that eliminating CSRs would increase the federal deficit by $194 billion over a ten-year period.