I previously wrote two posts on actions that show that Donald Trump will do and say anything he feels he needs to in order to get what he wants. He has no morality or ethics. It’s all transactional. The end definitely justifies the means for him.
Today’s New York Times provided yet another example. The Trump administration announced that they were suspending $10 billion in risk adjustment payments to insurers because a lower Federal court in New Mexico threw out the formula on which the payments were based.
Why this sudden and unusual deference to a judicial decision, let alone one by a lower court? Because it allows Trump to do what he and the Republicans are dying to do … kill Obamacare.
Actions taken by Trump and the Republicans have already greatly weakened the Affordable Care Act by driving up premiums substantially, making it less affordable for the very people the Act is meant to protect. If Trump proceeds to suspend these risk adjustment payments, it will without any doubt practically kill health care access for Americans who have come to depend on the ACA marketplace for their health insurance.
Another lower Federal court in Massachusetts had upheld the formula. If the Trump administration were truly neutral on the health care issue, they could take a wait and see attitude pending the appeal of these cases, or others, to higher courts. The administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid had the gaul to state that “we were disappointed by the court’s recent ruling.” Such mendacity!
People have already received notice from their insurers in the past weeks that they were requesting big increases (50%) in premiums for 2019. And that was before this development. A 100% increase would now not surprise me.
Trump’s Justice Department has also asked a Federal court to declare the requirement that
insurers not reject people for pre-existing conditions or charge them more … one of the most important aspects of Obamacare that has benefited millions of people … unconstitutional. Another betrayal of the very people who put Trump in office.
What is to become of the health of our middle class citizens who do not receive insurance through their employment?
