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East County News Service
October 23, 2017 (San Diego) - Open enrollment to get coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for 2018 begins on November 1st and ends December 15th. Many Americans aren’t getting this important information, since the Trump administration has taken the following steps to sabotage getting word out and discouraging people from signing up.
- Slashed the ACA’s advertising budget by 90%
- Cut the open enrollment period from 12 weeks to 6 weeks
- Cut funding for nonprofits that help people sign up for ACA health insurance plans
- Ended subsidies to help middle-income Americans buy health insurance
- Signed an executive order raising premiums for older, sicker Americans and making it easier for insurers to sell “junk plans” at low cost, but with skimpy coverage that may exclude items such as maternity care services for the disabled and mental illness treatment.
California’s Attorney General recently filed a lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration from cutting subsidies.
A new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation taken this month shows that 70% of Americans believe it’s more important for the President to make the ACA, also known as Obamacare, work than to make it fail, CNBC reports. The poll also found that 66% want Congress to work on fixing Obamacare instead of repealing it, so Trump’s actions are contrary to what the majority of Americans, including many Trump voters, now say they want.
For now, California’s exchange offers Affordable Care Act policies through 11 different insurance companies that you can choose from.
For information on policies available in California under the Affordable Care Act or to sign up for a plan, you can visit www.CoveredCA.com.
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