Democrats Ask Agencies to Detail Actions Taken on ACA

WASHINGTON – House Ways and Means Committee Democrats, worried that Republicans are sabotaging the Affordable Care Act, have asked three federal agencies for information about how they are implementing President Trump's executive order on repealing the law.

Led by Rep. Richard Neal from Massachusetts, the committee's top Democrat, they made the request in a three-page letter to the acting secretaries of the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services.

"As Republicans in Congress simultaneously pursue repeal of the law without an immediate replacement, we are concerned the recent executive order could sabotage the law's coverage gains and destabilize insurance markets in the interim," the Democrats wrote. "The rules for health plans for 2018 already are set, and issuers are preparing their initial rate filings and making critical decisions about whether to participate in the Marketplace. Changes to those rules could result in issuers pulling out of the Marketplace, leaving Americans with no choices nine months from now when the next open enrollment begins."

State and local officials have been concerned that repealing the ACA without a replacement, could undercut their bond ratings and budgets.

The letter asks for the general counsel of the departments to analyze the legality of any action to waive, defer, grant exemption from, or delay the implementation of ACA provisions.

It also asks the departments about their specific plans to carry out the executive order and which revisions would need to be made through "notice-and-comment rulemaking."

The Democrats also ask offices, such as Treasury's Office of Tax Analysis, to detail the impacts of any action taken to waive, defer, exempt or delay ACA provisions.

The group asked for responses to be provided no later than Feb. 28.

Meanwhile, the Rockefeller Institute of Government and the Brookings Institution released a report from a study of five states that concluded sicker than anticipated ACA enrollees led some insurers that could not make a profit, to leave the ACA marketplace exchanges. Their departures, in turn, increased the premiums for remaining ACA enrollees.

The five states were California, Michigan, Florida, North Carolina and Texas, each of which had four years of experience in open enrollment periods from 2014-2017, according to the report.

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