REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price (C) and Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini (R) listen to U.S. President Donald Trump speak during a meeting with health insurance company CEOs at the White House in Washington, U.S. February 27, 2017.
A new web page from the Department of Health and Human Services touts the Trump administration's efforts to undermine the law.
The page, entitled "Providing Relief Right Now for Patients," goes through various regulatory changes being implemented at HHS to the ACA and its programs.
"A functioning, competitive market for health insurance is a crucial element of providing patients access to quality, affordable care," the page reads. "But with skyrocketing premiums and narrowing choices, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has done damage to this market and created great burdens for many Americans."
The page includes links to stories announcing various changes the administration has made so far in an attempt to "to stabilize the individual and small group insurance markets."
"We are going through every page of regulations and guidance related to the Affordable Care Act to determine whether or not they work for patients and whether or not they are making our health care system better," reads the page.
While this is the most public forum for Trump's attempts to alter the ACA, the administration has previously pulled advertising for the last two weeks of open enrollment on Obamacare's insurance exchanges, which contributed to a decline in sign-ups.
HHS and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also released new reforms for the individual marketplaces in February. They included cutting the length of open enrollment in half and taking steps to make more difficult the process of signing up for Obamacare plans outside of open enrollment.
Trump has repeatedly said that Obamacare is "collapsing," House Speaker Paul Ryan called the plan to repeal and replace Obamacare an "act of mercy," and many Republicans have said the law is in a "death spiral."
Health policy analysts, however, have argued that enrollment - even with the changes after Trump's inauguration - has stayed strong and does not meet the criteria for a "death spiral."
Trump, Ryan, and Republican leaders failed to wrangle enough votes last week to pass their preferred replacement for Obamacare, the American Health Care Act.