Enrollment

Drop in Late Obamacare Enrollment Appears to Be a Trump Effect New York Times by Margo Sanger-Katz—In the waning days of this year's Affordable Care Act sign-up period, the Trump administration declared war on the health law, releasing an executive order that could weaken its requirements and yanking advertisements and outreach off the air. Those actions appear to have made a difference. Sign-ups for health plans in the states managed by the federal government are down slightly compared with last year. About 9.2 million Americans picked an Obamacare marketplace plan for this year, according to a government report released Friday. Last year, that number was 9.6 million.

Talk of Repeal Sends People Running to, and From, Affordable Care Act New York Times by Abby Goodnough & Robert Pear—A flurry of actions by President Trump and Congress against the Affordable Care Act injected confusion and uncertainty into the final weeks of the annual period to sign up for coverage, and many, but not all, enrollment groups were reporting a drop in people seeking insurance as the deadline loomed on Tuesday. Confusion, though, has prevailed, with Mr. Trump often repeating his pledge to repeal the law and a handful of Republicans proposing complicated replacement plans, none of which would most likely cover as many people.