The Trump Government is already killing Obamacare

[stpioc]

The period, during which people without insurance through an employer or Medicare or Medicaid could sign up for coverage, ended with 9.2 million people signed up for plans through the Healthcare.gov platform, not including state-based exchanges.

What's most startling, however, is how much the plan selections slowed after Trump took office.

According to the previous biweekly update from the Obama administration, 8.8 million had signed up through January 14, meaning roughly 800,000 people were enrolling weekly. Based on the updated figures from Trump's CMS, 200,000 Americans signed up for coverage in each of the final two weeks.

This also means that enrollment fell by 400,000 people from the open enrollment period ending in 2016. For reference, there were 100,000 more people enrolled than in the previous year at the last update.

The slow end pace could be potentially crippling to the law's health. The late sign-up period is critical, as the percentage of young people obtaining coverage usually increases, which helps with balancing risk pools for the exchanges.

In the previous three years of the exchanges, the people who have signed up through the exchanges have been older and sicker than expected. This has led to higher costs for insurers, which then get passed on to consumers.

The Obama administration hoped to get more young people to sign up through outreach, especially as the sign-up period came to a close. Instead, communication about the open enrollment period came to a screeching halt after the Obama administration turned the keys over to Trump and his team. The effect on enrollment is clear.

Obamacare enrollment tanks under Trump administration - Business Insider

No outreach, creating panic, basically sabotage. And they probably will get away with it: Paul Ryan says Obamacare is 'entering a death spiral' But an engineered death spiral: On Obamacare, President Trump told Republicans ‘let it explode’ - MarketWatch

It's not entirely done though, there was still optimism a short while ago, but that already seems like a long-time ago..

CBO: Obamacare enrollment will stay steady next year, hit 13 million in 2027. One of Republicans’ favorite ways to describe Obamacare is as “collapsing.” “We’re acting quickly because Obamacare is collapsing under its own weight, and things will continue to get worse otherwise,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said in a January 9 op-ed for Fox News. “Obamacare is collapsing,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said at a press conference this week. “Don’t forget that.” The latest data from the Congressional Budget Office, however, begs to differ. The nonpartisan budget agency released its long-term economic forecast earlier today, which predicts that enrollment in the Obamacare marketplaces will increase slightly and then hold constant for the next decade.

Today in Obamacare: The GOP says the law is “collapsing.” CBO says otherwise. - Vox

Contra Republicans, Obamacare is not in a death spiral. A record number of Americans enrolled in Obamacare policies for 2017. After a significant-but-predicted correction that drove up premiums this past year, experts believe the continued demand for marketplace health plans mean prices will stabilize. That is, unless something else drives them up.

If the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress were to administer the law this year in an above-board way, they would debunk their own death spiral talking point. On the other hand, if they repealed the law without replacing it simultaneously, any market disruptions that ensued would be attributed to them.

Obamacare Just Had a Very Good Week. That Doesn’t Mean the Law Is Any Safer. | New Republic

But they're not administering it in an above-board way..