ACA office

in Obamacare plans from $100 million to $10 million. Also, the New York Times reported grants to about 100 nonprofit groups, known as navigators, that can help people one-on-one with enrolling in the right health plans offered by the insurance marketplaces will be cut to a total of $36 million, from about $63 million.

Last year navigator groups as a whole enrolled 80,000 people in U.S. or about 0.7 percent of overall enrollees who signed up for 2017 marketplace plans.

The insurance marketplaces have struggled with instability, failing to attract enough healthy people to subsidize the high cost of sicker policy holders, and the marketing and outreach efforts are in part intended to help address these problems. While a person with high medical bills might make it a priority to seek out a health insurance plan, healthy young people are more likely to need persuaded to purchase a coverage option.

The Trump administration cited the declining number of first-time enrollees in Affordable Care Act coverage, which fell by 42 percent this year compared with 2016, for the cuts. In addition, the administration said that many navigator groups failed to meet their enrollment targets, and the funding for navigator groups depended on how close they came to meeting their enrollment goal in 2017.

Hughes said with less funding, they could do their job with less staff and less advertising, but he questioned whether they would be able to be as effective at helping people get enrolled, understand Medicaid options or enter the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which helps families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but are still in need.

“It’s like everyone is up in the air. The organizations like ourselves, we can continue to do this but we’re going to have to cut back ... and then is it really doing its job and getting the information out to the public?” he said.