Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” when asked about President Donald Trump ending the subsidies to health insurance companies, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said Trump was “affecting the ability of vulnerable people to receive health care right now.”
Partial transcript as follows:
COLLINS: What the president is doing is affecting the ability of vulnerable people to receive health care right now. This is not a bailout of the insurers. What this money is used for is to help low income people afford their deductibles and co-pays so their health care is available to them. In addition, the president has taken steps to cut off funding to reach people who are eligible for subsidies under the ACA. So, these certainly are very disruptive moves that will result in smaller numbers of people being insured that will make it more difficult to low income people to afford their out-of-pocket costs and that will destabilize the insurance market.
TAPPER: Not to put too fine a point on it, senator, but you’re saying President Trump is taking actions that will hurt American citizens.
COLLINS: I do believe that. i’m very concerned about what the impact is going to be for people who make under 250% of the federal poverty level because the funding that is available under the cost-sharing reductions is used to subsidize their out-of-pocket costs. And if they can’t afford their deductible, then their insurance is pretty much useless.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN