Amidst the Coronavirus pandemic, which has left hundreds of thousands of Americans infected and counting, the Trump administration has refused to re-open enrollment in health care plans covered by the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, despite calls to do so in order to help protect uninsured Americans from sudden large medical bills. With almost ten million new confirmed unemployment filings in the last two weeks alone and potential staggeringly high new Coronavirus case counts — the shock of exorbitant medical bills would be terribly timed. This week, Hillary Clinton joined those publicly demanding that the Trump administration re-open Obamacare plan enrollment.
She tweeted:
‘Millions of people have lost their employer-tied health care over the last two weeks because of the pandemic. It’s an easy call: Re-open the health care exchanges.’
Millions of people have lost their employer-tied health care over the last two weeks because of the pandemic.
It's an easy call: Re-open the health care exchanges. https://t.co/otTxOpyB3b
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 2, 2020
It’s worth noting that there is a provision in the law that allows people who lose their employer-sponsored healthcare to sign up for an Obamacare plan regardless of the time of year. However, that’s still an unnecessary procedural hurdle, and many of the millions in need of assistance might not be aware of the option at all. A complete reopen of the ACA’s healthcare market could help mitigate those issues, and last week, insurers had been expecting an announcement of a new enrollment period — but earlier this week, a Trump administration official confirmed to POLITICO that the White House had backed off from the plan.
Coronavirus testing is now free, at least on paper, but treatment is not — and treatment costs could easily balloon, considering a projection from the University of Washington for a need of over 31,000 invasive ventilators across the U.S. on the national peak infection date.
Check out Twitter’s response to Hillary below..
