HEALTH INSURANCE Administration changes tune on Obama measure

WASHINGTON — A new report from the White House tries to shift the Trump administration’s combative rhetoric on health care, suggesting changes to the Affordable Care Act under President Trump do not fundamentally undermine the health law.

The report Friday from the Council of Economic Advisers says Obama-era subsidies that help lowand middle-income customers pay their premiums will help keep HealthCare.gov afloat even if some healthy people drop out or seek other coverage because of Trump’s changes. Nearly 90 percent of customers get taxpayer-provided assistance.

The report reflects the outcome of 2018 midterm elections in which Democrats successfully campaigned on keeping the ACA and effectively ended Trump’s drive to repeal it. Democratic 2020 White House hopefuls are seizing on health care as an issue, with some pushing for a government-run system that would cover all Americans and replace the ACA, better known as “Obamacare.”

Larry Levitt, of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, reviewed the report and said it suggests the administration is trying to move on from the battle over the ACA.

“The president seemed to take pride in undermining the ACA, but now his administration is resisting the argument that they have undermined the health law,” Levitt said. “They can point to benefits of deregulation but will also have to live with the costs, which include higher premiums for middle-class people with pre-existing conditions.”

The report looks at three big changes under Trump that affect the health care law. They are congressional repeal of the law’s unpopular fines on people who go uninsured, “association health plans” for small businesses, and low-cost short-term health insurance that doesn’t have to cover basic benefits.

“These reforms do not ‘sabotage’ the ACA but rather provide a more efficient focus of tax-funded care to those in need,” the report says.