Article snippet: The Trump administration plans on making a 90 percent cut to the advertising budget for Obamacare during the upcoming enrollment period. In 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services spent $100 million on Obamacare advertising and outreach, but for this year’s open enrollment period, CMS plans on spending $10 million. They also plan on cutting grant money for Navigator programs (which are required by the ACA), which receive funds to assist with public enrollment in Obamacare. Navigator programs in this upcoming enrollment period will only receive funding based on their performance during the previous enrollment period. If a Navigator program, for example, only reached 70 percent of its enrollment goal, they will only receive 70 percent of the previous year’s funding in the next enrollment period. Randal Serr, director of Take Care Utah, the network of Navigator programs in Utah, told ABC News it’s an “absurd” way to measure funding. “The cuts undervalue the work that Navigators do -- we don’t just help people enroll, we help them stay healthy, keep their insurance, we make sure doctors and medications are covered. A lot of times we spend days or weeks helping them navigate glitches in the system.” CMS claims that they have not found any correlation between advertising spending and enrollment increases, and Navigator programs have been costly. These cuts are simply a way to save money and save Americans from “a bad deal,” according to the Dep... Link to the full article to read more