It's interesting that I hear them use the word agenda more than people or coverage.
The first step in ACA sabotageInspector general reviewing HHS decision to halt ObamaCare ads
The Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) inspector general is reviewing the Trump administration's decision earlier this year to halt its ObamaCare outreach efforts.
The review was initiated after Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Patty Murray (Wash.) requested the HHS watchdog investigate the administration's move in late January.
"We will conduct a fact-finding review of HHS's decision related to halting (and resuming, as applicable) paid advertisements, email, social media, and other outreach efforts related to Marketplace enrollment in 2017," HHS Inspector General Daniel Levinson wrote in a letter to the lawmakers dated Thursday.
"Our inquiry will include the timeline, decision-making process, and factors considered by HHS, including any HHS analyses of implications for enrollment and/or expected costs or savings," he added.
Inspector general reviewing HHS decision to halt ObamaCare ads
Gotta keep the good folks informed!
They can sue the government for their money thought right?Did Republicans sabotage Obamacare? Ohio insurers owed $100M they'll likely never see
WASHINGTON -- Ohio health insurers are owed more than $100 million by the federal government, which was supposed to protect them from losses during Obamacare's startup, according to a cleveland.com review of records. They may never get it, thanks to a Republican provision.
The provision slipped into a spending bill in late 2014, after the Affordable Care Act was under way, restricted the government in making payments.
As a result, some insurers have been forced to pare down their medical networks, cut their markets or leave Obamacare altogether -- contributing to the higher premiums for customers and insurer withdrawals that Republicans point to as proof of the program's failure.
Republicans say they were just preventing an ill-advised insurer bailout because, they say, Obamacare was bound to fail. But Democrats and some health policy analysts say Republicans purposely sabotaged the Affordable Care Act by denying promised payments to insurers at a crucial time.
It was when insurers were trying to find the right equilibrium between premiums and the cost of patient health care. The insurers were supposed to be protected against large losses if their early projections proved wrong -- and had they been protected, they would not be waiting for the millions the government owes them.
The federal government owes $96.5 million to Ohio insurers for losses in just 2014 and 2015. The figures and size of the problem in Ohio have gone unreported until now.
Cleveland.com examined them after House Republicans failed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act last week and then maintained they wanted to help the program succeed. Democrats said if that were true, the payments to insurers -- a way to assure Obamacare's success -- would never have been blocked.
Among the cleveland.com findings:
- The inability to get the money played a role in the demise of Coordinated Health Mutual, also known as InHealth, a nonprofit Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) in Ohio that went out of business last year. A financial statement in September showed the federal government owed the Ohio cooperative $62.7 million. That money would have gone a long way toward wiping out the nonprofit's $74 million in liabilities.
- Medical Mutual of Ohio says the government owes it $31.5 million for the combined years of 2014, 2015 and 2016. Medical Mutual remains in business but has narrowed its market and its network of providers as it adapted to the challenges.
- HealthSpan, which last year ceased operations after financial losses and moved its members to other insurers and providers, was owed $12.9 million for 2014 and 2015.
- Humana Health Plan of Ohio, which as part of the national Humana network is pulling out of the Affordable Care Act market next year, is owed $8 million for 2014 and 2015.
Some of these examples include money owed to insurers for 2016, and the information was volunteered by the insurers. But full 2016 data for all insurers is not expected to be available publicly until November. Meantime, cleveland.com calculated the federal debt to insurers just for 2014 and 2015. Based on insurer projections, the amount is certain to soar past $100 million when 2016 is added.
- Summa Insurance Company, part of the Akron-based Summa Health System, is owed $2.1 million for 2014 and 2015 combined
It is unlikely to ever be paid. Companies with deep pockets and other insurance products have managed to survive anyway, but the losses informed even their subsequent decisions.
In other words, said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, a Niles Democrat, the Republicans helped create problems for insurers and then were able to say, "Look at all these insurers pulling out."
Did Republicans sabotage Obamacare? Ohio insurers owed $100M they'll likely never see