Former President Barack Obama and the people who helped him launch the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or sometimes referred to as "Obamacare," are not going to be happy with President Donald Trump's latest actions.
According to The Hill, the president's administration announced that it's slashing funding for ACA navigators by a staggering 90%.
The health insurance navigators assist people in signing up for Obamacare on various exchanges, according to the report.
News of the deep cuts in funding came on the heels of Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continuing its winning streak with eliminating government waste and finding ways to streamline it all.
In a bombshell announcement from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Friday, it was revealed that health insurance navigators will only receive $10 million per year for the next four years.
The same navigators, under President Joe Biden, received a whopping $98 million in 2024 alone, marking a major cut-down on funding on Trump's watch.
The Hill noted:
CMS said the cut will allow the exchanges to focus on more effective strategies to improve outcomes and to reduce premiums for people who don’t qualify for subsidies.
The health agency justified the cut by noting navigators enrolled only 0.6 percent of plan selections on the federal exchange during the open enrollment period — at a cost of $1,061 per enrollment.
CMS officials released a statement defending its move, citing a lack of return on investment for the previous sums sent to the navigators.
"Overall, Navigator performance data shows that the current level of funding does not represent a reasonable return on investment. These numbers indicate that Navigators are not enrolling nearly enough people to justify the substantial amount of federal dollars previously spent on the program," they wrote.
The decrease in funding for health insurance navigators, according to experts, will save U.S. taxpayers some $360 million over the next four years.
Trump, during his first term in the White House, cut funding to ACA navigators in the same manner.
He also slashed funding for ads pointing to Healthcare.gov, the primary website where people can sign up for ACA health care plans.
Interestingly, had Biden -- or Harris -- won the election, their administration was set to up the amount of funding to a mind-blowing $500 million over the next five years.
