Covered California Outreach Is Full Steam Ahead Despite Executive Order Pulling Ads
The state's efforts aren't impeded by the president's order to stop outreach efforts before the health law's sign-up deadline. Industry experts voiced concern that the move could wreak havoc on the marketplaces.
The Mercury News:
Trump Move To Kill Obamacare Ads Backfires In California
A last-minute tactic by the Trump Administration to cancel $5 million in advertising the federal government had already paid for to remind Americans of Tuesday’s 2017 open enrollment deadline for Obamacare will have little impact in the Golden State. That’s because Covered California, the state’s health insurance exchange established under the Affordable Care Act, is not federally directed or funded. So a plethora of radio, television and web ads, as well as email reminders, are locked in and running statewide through midnight Tuesday. (Seipel, 1/27)
Los Angeles Times:
Trump's Actions On Obamacare Threaten To Undermine Insurance Markets
The Trump administration’s decision to pull television ads urging Americans to sign up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act is stoking fears that the White House is trying to sabotage the nation’s insurance markets in an effort to hobble the program, jeopardizing coverage for millions. The move, which comes just days ahead of a critical enrollment deadline for Obamacare health plans, follows Trump’s executive order last weekend in which he suggested his administration wouldn’t implement rules crucial to sustaining viable markets. (Levey, 1/27)
The administration did walk back parts of the order, though —
The Washington Post:
Trump Administration Backtracks Part Way On ACA Enrollment Outreach
The Trump administration on Friday partly retracted a directive it had issued less than 24 hours earlier to halt all advertising and other outreach activities aimed at encouraging consumers to buy health plans for 2017 during the final days of enrollment under the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces. According to two sources familiar with the reversal, administration officials were startled by a backlash that built swiftly on social media among proponents of the health-care law, which President Trump is seeking to dismantle. The officials conferred overnight, the sources said, and by Friday morning had modified the directive. (Goldstein, 1/27)