WASHINGTON -- The newly political tone to press releases issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), continued to be evident this week.
In a press release issued Wednesday, HHS secretary Tom Price, MD, denounced a report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) which found that the bill the House passed to repeal-and-replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would result in 14 million fewer people with health insurance in 2018. "The CBO was wrong when they analyzed Obamacare's effect on cost and coverage, and they are wrong again," Price said. "In reality, Americans are paying more for fewer healthcare choices because of Obamacare, and that's why the Trump Administration is committed to reforming healthcare."
MedPage Today has been working for 10 days to get a response from the Trump administration to questions about the change in tone. Starting a few hours before our earlier story was posted on May 16th, we sent four emails and left three voicemail messages requesting comments or a phone interview.
On Thursday, a CMS spokesperson finally responded, declining the interview request and provided the following statement: "The administration and policies have changed and the press releases now reflect accurate information about the problems related to the Affordable Care Act."
As MedPage Today noted earlier, press releases from CMS -- which are usually matter-of-fact explanations of new CMS policies or announcements of grants or contracts -- have taken on an overtly political sound in recent months. For example, this press release from April about the Market Stabilization rule includes the following statements: "Individuals obtaining coverage in the Marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act have faced double-digit premium increases, fewer plans to choose from, and a market that continues to be threatened by insurance issuer exits." At the bottom of the release were statistics on states and counties with only one insurer, as well as states with large increases in their average insurance premiums.
Another CMS press release issued after the House passed the repeal-and-replace bill quoted CMS administrator Seema Verma as saying the measure will help the U.S. "move toward patient-centered healthcare instead of government-centered healthcare."