President Donald Trump announced this week that payments to insurers under the Affordable Care Act would stop “immediately.”
Trump also said he’s looking to Democrats to negotiate a “fix” to what he called an “imploding” law.
"ObamaCare is a broken mess,” he said. “Piece by piece we will now begin the process of giving America the great HealthCare it deserves!"
The Justice Department has already notified a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. as lawsuits are expected over the change.
"We will discontinue these payments immediately," said acting Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Eric Hargan and Medicare administrator Seema Verma.
State attorney generals are expected to sue over the change. Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general, said Trump’s decision was “sabotage.”
"If these reports are true,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Califsaid in the joint statement, “the president is walking away from the good-faith, bipartisan Alexander-Murray negotiations and risking the health care of millions of Americans.”
The Alexander-Murray negotiations are bipartisan talks led by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
The announcement comes after Trump signed an executive order that would make lower-premium health insurance plans more accessible.
The change, however, may not happen until 2019, according to reports.
Photo courtesy: Flickr.com
Publication date: October 13, 2017
