This story has updated with data from a new Kaiser Family Foundation survey of navigator organizations.
The Trump administration is making deep cuts to the funding for outreach efforts to help people sign up for health care under the Affordable Care Act.
A document obtained by The Washington Post shows funding for “navigators” — grass-roots organizations that assist with individual enrollment in the law’s marketplaces — will be cut by 41 percent. Some groups will face up to a 92 percent funding cut, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in awards last year shrinking to a minimum $10,000 this year.
These cuts will hit states in the Midwest and South the hardest. Some other states, primarily left-leaning, fund their own navigator systems so aren’t affected by the federal funding cuts.
will get about for ACA outreach this year.
That’s last year.
ACA outreach organizations in do not receive federal funding.
Decrease in funding
Note: States in light gray run their own marketplaces. They do not receive federal navigator grants.
Many ACA supporters have called the move another attempt at making the marketplaces fail, while Health and Human Services officials have said the outreach efforts are a waste of taxpayers’ money.
Funding increased for a few navigators, but most learned Sept. 14 that they would have drastic cuts. Last year, 19 groups received more than $1 million in funding. The new data show only 10 groups are receiving at least that much this year.
Some navigator organizations have already started to shut down because their previous award ended on Sept. 1. “They were expecting to get the same amount [of funding as last year],” said Karen Pollitz of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
As budgets shrink, the burden will likely fall more on states that lean Republican. Many blue states run their own marketplaces and fund their own navigator program, so they won’t be affected by these federal cuts.
’s roughly in funding is equal to about per enrollee.
That's than the national average.
ACA outreach organizations in do not receive federal funding.
Funding per enrollee
Note: States in light gray run their own marketplaces. They do not receive federal navigator grants.
Nearly nine-tenths of these groups plan to lay off staff and reduce their advertising in response to the funding cut, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. And vulnerable groups such as non-English speakers and Medicaid-eligible people who get special assistance from navigators will face reduced services as well.
Navigator organizations, by and large, target these vulnerable consumers for enrollment. Without assistance, those people may have a harder time signing up — and that’s if they even know enrollment is underway.
Here’s where navigators targeted particular demographic groups in 2016:
The cut could undermine bipartisan efforts to shore up the Obamacare exchanges by attracting more young and healthy people, who have lower health-care costs.
The administration has taken other steps that critics say are aimed at sabotaging the law. It previously announced it would slash advertising for the upcoming enrollment season, which begins Nov. 1.
Kevin Schaul and Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.
About this story
Navigator data are from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the part of the Department of Health and Human Services that oversees the exchanges. 2017 marketplace enrollment, 2014-2016 insurer participation and navigator survey data are from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Originally published Sept. 14, 2017.
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