Letter to the Hon. Joseph R. Biden Jr., President-Elect - U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin Asks President Biden to Reopen the ACA Marketplace to Allow Wisconsinites to Get Health Insurance During Covid-19 Pandemic
Letter
Dear President-Elect Biden:
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical that all Americans have the support they
need to obtain comprehensive, affordable health coverage. For almost a year, we have watched
the Trump administration's response to this crisis ignore public health guidance and cast the
needs of Wisconsinites aside. I write to urge you to immediately open a special enrollment
period (SEP) for the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) online marketplace, and to restore funding for
the Navigator Program and the ACA's outreach and enrollment efforts.
More Americans are uninsured today than when President Trump took office.
1 During his time in
office, he has sought to undermine access to comprehensive coverage, including by cutting back
the open enrollment period for the ACA's marketplace and slashing funding for outreach and
enrollment and the Navigator Program.2 During the COVID-19 pandemic, this sabotage has
continued. Time and again, the Trump administration played politics and ignored public health
guidance by refusing to open a SEP.
3 Millions of Americans have become uninsured this year4
,
and it is heartless that President Trump locked out the uninsured and underinsured from
accessing the health coverage they desperately needed during an unprecedented public health
crisis.
Over half-a-million Wisconsinites have contracted COVID-19, and nearly every Wisconsinite
has been impacted by the ongoing economic crisis caused by the pandemic.
5 Thousands of
uninsured and underinsured Wisconsinites are anxious, not only about what the possibility of
contracting COVID-19 could mean for their health and that of their family, but also for their
financial stability. An immediate SEP, paired with restored outreach funding and support for the
Navigator Program, would give Wisconsin families a level of reassurance and security that has
1 https://khn.org/news/number-of-americans-without-insurance-rises-in-2018/
2 https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/10/09/six-ways-trump-has-sabotaged-the-affordable-care-act/
3 https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/31/trump-obamacare-coronavirus-157788
4 https://familiesusa.org/resources/the-covid-19-pandemic-and-resulting-economic-crash-have-caused-the-greatest-healthinsurance-losses-in-american-history/
5 https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/covid-19/data.htm
been absent during President Trump's time in office. States, including Wisconsin, stand ready to
work with you during a SEP.
6 Families already struggling to make ends meet in light of the
global pandemic need and deserve comprehensive, affordable health insurance.
Source