Attacks continue on Affordable Care Act

IN MY OPINION

As another iteration of Trumpcare rears its ugly, untenable head in Washington, like a zombie that just won’t go down, the administration has found another, more insidious way of attacking the Affordable Care Act.

Just last week, the Department of Health and Human Services announced massive funding cuts to the Navigator program. Navigators are nonprofit organizations in each state that work directly with low- and middle-income residents to educate them about health care and insurance options. That can involve helping folks sign up for coverage via the marketplace or Medicaid, Badgercare and other similar options. It also involves simply answering questions and helping people navigate the often confusing and complex medical system.

The program was part of the Obamacare law when it passed in 2014, and provides funding to ensure in-person assistance to help get people insured and/or covered. Faced with defeat after defeat of their so-called replacement plans, the Trump administration seems to have decided on a war of attrition, squeezing out the access and outreach programs that actually let people know what’s available and how to utilize it.

Administration officials have been vague about the real reasons for the budget cuts, claiming that they would target only those groups that had failed to meet their enrollment goals. Right here in Wisconsin, however, the reality tells a very different story. The state’s largest federally certified and state-licensed Navigator agency, Covering Wisconsin, had its budget slashed by 42%. According to its own numbers, though, the group exceeded its enrollment goals, doing 3,700 direct enrollments in the marketplace plus Medicaid when they’d been aiming for 3,226.

You can’t help but wonder if that wasn’t the problem. Republicans have not exactly hidden their disdain for all things Obamacare and the successes it’s seen.

Covering Wisconsin now will have to pull out from about half of the counties it currently serves, including Adams, Columbia, Green Lake, Marquette, Outagamie, Portage, Sauk, Waupaca, Waushara, Winnebago, Green and Lafayette.

For people without reliable Internet access, limited transportation options and other barriers to access, outreach by groups such as Covering Wisconsin is often a crucial lifeline to obtaining coverage and care.

Not only that, but these groups also are the only way for folks to get their postenrollment needs met and questions answered. Anyone who has ever dealt with medical insurance knows just how daunting it can be.

Rather than working to pass tweaks and improvements to the current law, or even having a viable alternative, the current administration and its supporters have

shown themselves to be more interested in winning political points than in making sure their constituents have needed and affordable access to care.

The current incarnation of the plan, Cassidy-Graham, is the worst yet. It would increase the number of people who would lose coverage (an estimated 32 million by 2026, with 414,000 in Wisconsin alone), while slashing funding for states that opted to expand Medicaid programs under the ACA by $180 billion.

In a statement, Covering Wisconsin Executive Director Donna Friedsam noted that “Over 200,000 Wisconsin residents currently enrolled in ACA plans will need to renew their coverage and consider whether their current plan or a new plan will best fit their needs. As well, work remains to connect Wisconsin’s remaining 300,000 uninsured residents to appropriate health insurance coverage and care.”

The open enrollment period this year lasts from Nov. 1 through Dec. 15 (half the length that it’s been in recent years), and those interested can seek help via healthcare.gov or from groups like Covering Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, and certainly in direct contrast to the current efforts to torpedo Obamacare, single-payer and other similar ideas for universal coverage are looking better and better, with a plurality of Americans supporting the concept generally. Imagine that: Building a society based on mutually assured care.