As Republicans mount an effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the Trump administration is making sure it is not easy for people to sign up for health insurance.
Last Friday, the administration announced that healthcare.gov, the website many Americans use to sign up for health insurance through insurance marketplaces, which was installed by Obamacare, will be down for maintenance for 12 hours every Sunday. As a result, scheduled maintenance will be taking place during the open-enrollment period.
The White House did not give an explanation for the outages, but following the Trump administration’s previous efforts to shut down Obamacare, it is not surprising to believe this maintenance is a scheduled plan to keep down enrollment. Essentially, it makes it slightly harder for Americans to sign up for health insurance.
As a part of a mission to make it appear the Affordable Care Act is not working, Tom Price’s Health and Human Services Department has already announced cuts to the programs that help fund Obamacare outreach, as well as advertising that lets Americans know of the upcoming open-enrollment period.
That said, Tom Price is currently stopping taxpayer-funded travel on private jets following a POLITICO report that more than $400,000 in charter jet spending for the HHS secretary’s travel have been spent since May.