WASHINGTON, DC (October 12, 2017): The Council for Affordable Health Coverage (CAHC) – a coalition of employers, insurers, brokers, agents, patient groups, and physician organizations – released the following statement today on the Trump Administration’s newly released executive order:
“We at the Council for Affordable Health Coverage have long said that the Affordable Care Act needs major surgery, and we support increased flexibility and choices for individuals and businesses as part of a solution to repair this flawed law. We are pleased that the Trump Administration’s executive order will include needed reforms to strengthen HRAs and ease access to stopgap policies some consumers depend on when between jobs,” said CAHC President Joel White. “We look forward to working with the Departments as they implement the executive order through regulations. We encourage the Departments to be mindful to enact changes that aggregate, instead of splintering risk, so that markets are not further destabilized. The ACA fell short by creating a system whereby too many Americans had a health care policy but remained functionally uninsured because they could not afford their rising premiums and deductibles. This executive order creates an opportunity to fix these challenges, and we look forward to working with the Administration to ensure these changes benefit consumers and businesses through lower health costs and more affordable health coverage.”
White continued, “The Council for Affordable Health Coverage will continue our review of this executive order in the days ahead and will share feedback with administration personnel. In the meantime, we encourage the Trump Administration to work with Congress to rebuild markets in a bipartisan fashion – starting with the emerging framework from the Senate HELP Committee, which includes a commitment to funding cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments and granting states increased flexibility through the ACA’s 1332 waiver program.”
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Background:
The Council for Affordable Health Coverage (CAHC) is a broad-based alliance with a primary focus: bringing down the cost of health care for all Americans. CAHC promotes policies that lower health costs through increased competition, informed consumers and more choices to help promote access to affordable coverage. Learn more at CAHC.net.