Obama Encourages ACA Enrollment As Trump Admin Guts Outreach Budget

Former President Barack Obama is still encouraging people to enroll in an insurance plan under Obamacare, despite efforts by his successor to dismantle the law and destabilize insurance markets.

Obama recorded a video for Get America Covered — a new organization formed by Obama-era health officials to publicize Obamacare sign-up information during the enrollment period — on the first day of open enrollment, encouraging people to shop for an insurance plan.

The video, set to cheery music with simple infographics, explains where to go, how to sign up and how much a typical plan costs, comparing the price to something relatable: “That’s cheaper than a lot of cell phone plans,” Obama said.

“And thanks to the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies can no longer charge you more just for being a woman or for having a preexisting condition. That’s a good thing, it means they have to compete for your business,” the former President said, ending the video with an archetypal Obama message of solidarity.

“Spread the word to make sure everybody knows that it’s time to get covered at healtchare.gov because this country works best when we look out for one another,” he said.

Today’s the day! You can go to https://t.co/p8DQwo89C7 and sign up for health coverage. Need a pep talk first? @BarackObama has you covered. pic.twitter.com/78DAFgUV77

— Get America Covered (@GetUSCovered) November 1, 2017

The Get American Covered group launched this fall and was founded by Lori Lodes, a former communications director for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Josh Peck, the former chief marketing officer for healthcare.gov. They said they’re marketing health care enrollment like they advertised it under the Obama administration.

The new video comes after several independent groups have released reports that show Obamacare enrollment for the young and the healthy will drop significantly this year due to the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the law and gut outreach spending.

S&P Global Ratings published a report Tuesday that found enrollment will drop by 7 to 13 percent this fall, which could mean between 0.8 and 1.6 million additional people will be uninsured in 2018.

While the Trump administration decided to cut outreach funding budget for enrollment by 90 percent this year, the Department of Health and Human Services hasn’t completely ceased efforts to inform people about the enrollment period. Last week, it shared all the different types of health plans to give people a week to “window shop” a plan. The department is also planning to share the number of sign-ups periodically, is staffing the healthcare.gov call center the same as last year and is sharing information about enrollment on social media. 

Those moves come in contrast to Trump’s previous efforts to dismantle the law, like ending cost sharing reduction payments to insurers that help keep costs down for low-income people.