Sens. Warner, Kaine Issue Statement on Anthem’s Decision to Leave Virginia Marketplace

WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 -- The office of Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., issued the following joint statement:

* * *

U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine released the following statement today on the uncertainty the Trump Administration has caused in the health insurance market, resulting in today's announcement that Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield will leave the Virginia marketplace in 2018:

"As a result of the uncertainty, mixed signals and deliberate sabotage from the Trump Administration, some insurers will raise premiums and scale back their health insurance offerings in the individual market, which serves more than 400,000 people in Virginia. It is unfortunate that others, such as Anthem, are choosing to leave the marketplace altogether.

"President Trump has been playing politics with health care for months now, and unfortunately, Virginians will be the ones paying the price. A report issued this week by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation found that the Administration's actions will lead to double-digit premium increases and more insurers withdrawing from the marketplaces. President Trump has said that he wants Obamacare to 'implode,' and his Administration is deliberately destabilizing the health insurance marketplace in order to achieve that goal.

"Insurers still have no idea whether the Administration plans to follow through on its threats to withhold cost-sharing reduction payments. In addition, there are troubling reports about the Trump Administration's deliberate efforts to undermine the upcoming open enrollment period, the first under the Trump presidency.

"Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have already begun working in a bipartisan way to explore ways we can improve the health care system and provide additional stability to the health care marketplaces. President Trump should stop using the health coverage of millions of Americans as political leverage, and demonstrate leadership by working with responsible members of both parties to improve the Affordable Care Act."