Grants, advertising slashed for signups in ACA overhaul

WASHINGTON » The Trump administration is gutting federal funds to help Americans sign up for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act, cutting grants to grass-roots groups that assist with enrollment by 40 percent and slashing an advertising budget from $100 million to $10 million.

The announcement Thursday, just nine weeks before the start of the fifth annual enrollment season, is the first indication of how an administration determined to overturn the health-care law will oversee the window for new and returning consumers buy coverage for 2018.

In a conference call with reporters, three federal health officials extended the White House’s pattern of denigrating the ACA and its effectiveness. They also reversed a promise that Health and Human Services staff had made two months ago to nearly 100 organizations receiving “navigator” grants that their funding would be renewed.

While the administration is not eliminating either the grants or the advertising, the magnitude and abruptness of the cuts sparked an immediate outcry from the Senate’s top Democrat, consumer advocacy groups and members of the Obama administration, who had relentlessly championed ACA enrollment until they left office eight months ago.

HHS officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that they had decided to begin tying the grant awards to navigator groups’ performance. All groups would receive at least $10,000, they explained. Beyond that, the size of a group’s grant would hinge on the percentage of its target enrollee total that it met last year. Groups that exceeded their targets will not get extra money, however.