Administration pulls plug on Obamacare help centers

CHICAGO — President Donald Trump’s administration has ended Affordable Care Act contracts that brought assistance into libraries, businesses and urban neighborhoods in 18 cities, including Cleveland, meaning shoppers on the insurance exchanges will have fewer places to turn for help signing up for coverage.

Community groups say the move will make it even more difficult to enroll the uninsured and help people already covered re-enroll or shop for a new policy. That’s already a concern because of consumer confusion stemming from the political wrangling in Washington and a shorter enrollment period. People will have 45 days to shop for 2018 coverage, starting Nov. 1 and ending Dec. 15. In previous years, they had twice that much time.

Some see it as another attempt to undermine the health law’s marketplaces by a president who has suggested he should let Obamacare fail. The administration, earlier this year, pulled paid advertising for the sign-up website HealthCare.gov.

Now, insurers and advocates are concerned that the administration could further destabilize the marketplaces by not promoting them or not enforcing the mandate compelling people to get coverage. The administration already has threatened to withhold payments to insurers to help people afford care, which would prompt insurers to sharply increase prices.

“There’s a clear pattern of the administration trying to undermine and sabotage the Affordable Care Act,” said Elizabeth Hagan, associate director of coverage initiatives for the liberal advocacy group Families USA. “It’s not letting the law fail, it’s making the law fail.”

The contracts for sign-up assistance, awarded in 2013, were never meant to be long term, said CMS spokeswoman Jane Norris.

“These contracts were intended to help CMS provide temporary, in-person enrollment support during the early years” of the exchanges, Norris said. Other federally funded help with enrollment will continue, she said, including a yearround call center and grant-funded navigator programs.

During the most recent open enrollment period, assistance centers operated in the Texas cities of Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, McAllen and El Paso; the Florida cities of Miami, Tampa and Orlando; Atlanta; northern New Jersey; Phoenix; Philadelphia; Indianapolis; New Orleans; Charlotte, North Carolina; Cleveland and Chicago.