Warner, Kaine: Trumpcare ‘dangerous’

U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine today asked Virginia’s top insurance regulator to inform consumers about the health insurance cost increases many are experiencing because of the Trump Administration’s threats to stop paying billions of dollars in cost-sharing subsidies that lower the out-of- pocket medical costs for millions of consumers.

The Senate Republican health care proposal, negotiated in secret over several weeks, has not yet been publicly shared with states, Democratic colleagues, or the public.

This hedging by the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans has created wild uncertainty in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace, and the impacts have become clearer as insurers file proposed rates for plans they will sell there. Because of President Trump’s deliberate decision to maintain a high level of uncertainty over the continuation of these ACA subsidies, many insurers have filed significant rate increases that will hurt lower-income families as well as middle-class Virginians who earn too much to qualify for premium assistance under the law and will bear the full brunt of any rate increases.

Fifty-six percent of Virginians who buy insurance in the ACA marketplace rely on cost-sharing reductions to keep their health care costs affordable. In fact, in some Virginia localities—including Lee, Scott, Wise, Halifax, Sussex, Accomack, Page, Madison, Rappahannock, and Richmond counties—approximately 100% of marketplace enrollees receive some form of cost sharing reduction.

“Despite the importance of these payments, the current Trump Administration has refused to say whether it will continue to provide these important cost-sharing reductions for longer than a month at a time,” Sens. Warner and Kaine write in a letter to Virginia Insurance Commissioner Jacqueline Cunningham. “In the absence of that commitment, insurers face enormous uncertainty that is directly impacting their 2018 premium proposals.”

Sens. Warner and Kaine are asking the commissioner request that insurers providing health coverage in Virginia report two sets of proposed 2018 premiums: rates that reflect the continuation of cost-sharing reductions, and rates that would apply if those subsidies end.

The full text of the letter to Commissioner Cunningham is available here.