Center for American Progress

Republicans Succeeded at Raising Insurance Premiums for Too Many
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Republicans Succeeded at Raising Insurance Premiums for Too Many

Author Sam Berger discusses the congressional GOP sabotage of the health insurance market—and why there is no question about who should take the blame.

For the past year, health care experts, patient groups, and providers have been warning that actions taken by the Trump administration and the Republican Congress to undermine the individual insurance market would raise premiums. President Trump said last year, “The best thing we can do, politically speaking, is let ObamaCare explode.” Now that people are starting to see the intended results of his actions, lawmakers who helped him are rushing to shift the blame.

But there is no room for debate. They sabotaged the market, plain and simple. Before Trump and Congress took these actions, they were warned that doing so would drive up premiums and hurt the market. They seemed not to care, and even acknowledged that they were taking these actions to drive up premiums and hurt the market. Now we are seeing the results. Their actions are driving up premiums and hurting the market.

The above excerpt was originally published in The Hill. Click here to view the full article.

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Authors

Sam Berger

Former Vice President, Democracy and Government Reform