Senators Press for Answers on 760,000 Obamacare Terminations

Happy Tuesday! With one week to go until Election Day, President Trump is continuing his swing through states that would typically be reliably in the Republican column. Trump today returned to Texas for a third time since the GOP's midterm convention in Dallas, again trying to boost Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton to victory over Democrat James Talarico.

Over the past week, Trump has visited South Carolina, Iowa, Florida, Georgia, Michigan and Mississippi. Over the next five days, he's scheduled to hold campaign events in Ohio, South Carolina, Florida, Kansas and Iowa. Trump won all of those states in 2024. Now he's trying to get Republicans in those states to turn out and prevent what's looking like a blue wave that could leave Democrats in control of not just the House but also the Senate.

Here's what else is happening.

Wyden and Sanders Press for Answers on 760,000 Obamacare Coverage Terminations

Sens. Ron Wyden and Bernie Sanders are reportedly pushing major health insurance companies to explain why they agreed to a Trump administration plan to terminate coverage for hundreds of thousands of Obamacare enrollees.

The administration announced last month that it had cancelled the "unauthorized" Affordable Care Act plans covering more than 760,000 peopleN as part of a crackdown on fraud in the healthcare system. It alleged that some of those individuals were enrolled improperly and others simply don't exist, as agents and brokers sought to milk the federal government for subsidy payments. The administration said that the move was expected to result in the return of about $2.2 billion in taxpayer-funded subsidies. Vice President JD Vance said that another 419,000 people would be subject to additional verification.

Wyden, a Democrat, and Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, wrote to 10 large health insurers Monday and accused them of colluding with the Trump administration to remove qualified enrollees without sufficient notice, leaving eligible people without coverage.

"We write to express serious concerns that Cigna worked with the Trump administration to kick qualified enrollees off their health plans without sufficient notice or compliance with consumer protections," the senators wrote in one letter, reported by Punchbowl News.

The senators asked why Cigna and other insurers "chose to accept and act on baseless allegations of fraud from the Trump administration."

"Republicans are weaponizing fraud falsehoods in order to undercut the ACA Marketplace and kick even more Americans off their health care," Wyden and Sanders wrote in their letter. "This year, nearly 3 million people have lost coverage while millions more are paying sky-high premiums and higher deductibles for insurance that covers less. Aligning with Republicans and their so-called 'war on fraud,' insurance companies chose to participate in a collaborative effort with the Trump administration to inject yet more chaos and damage into the ACA Marketplace."

As Punchbowl's Peter Sullivan notes, Wyden and Sanders are poised to lead the Senate Finance Committee and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions panel, respectively, if Democrats win control of the Senate, meaning that their letter is a sign of the pressure insurance companies could face under the next Congress.

A spokesperson for America's Health Insurance Plans told Punchbowl that insurers continue to back "policies that ensure eligible Americans can access affordable coverage options through the individual market" as well as "strong program integrity measures to safeguard consumers and taxpayers."

Consumer Confidence Rises for First Time in 4 Months

U.S. consumers are feeling a bit better about the economy in October, according to a preliminary monthly survey by the Conference Board.

The group's consumer confidence index rose 7.5 points to 91.7 in the survey covering the first three weeks of the month, the highest reading since June. Consumers' views of current business and labor market conditions improved, as did their short-term outlook for income, business and the labor market.

The better-than-expected results appear to be driven by relief many consumers have been feeling at the pump. "The recovery was in line with retail gasoline prices easing from September to October," Fergus McCormick, a senior economist at the Conference Board, said in a statement.

The improvement in consumer confidence was seen across all political affiliations but was particularly notable for Republicans, the Conference Board said.

Still, there's little evidence that consumers' outlook has finally turned the corner for good, with inflation remaining a problem. "[D]espite the increase in October, consumer confidence remained on the long-term downward trend that's persisted over the past few years," McCormick said. "Consumers planned less spending on services and durable goods over the next six months. This likely reflected higher price levels and persistent inflation, which eroded consumers' purchasing power."

Fiscal News Roundup

• Trump Makes Last-Minute Push to Keep Texas in Republican Hands With Third Trip – Associated Press
• Trump Plans to Loosen Restrictions on Methane Emissions From Oil Drilling – Associated Press
• Trump Administration Loans Up to $5B to Modernize Nuclear Plants – Associated Press
• US Consumer Confidence Recovers in October as Gas Prices Eased a Bit – Associated Press
• IRS and Social Security Promote Trump Accounts With Election a Week Away – Washington Post
• Louisiana Residents Sue to Unwind SpaceX Tax Deal – Associated Press
• CDC Deputy Director Resigns After Four Months in the Job – New York Times
• Gas Price Surge Hits Midwest Battleground States Days Before Midterms – Bloomberg
• Trump's Arch Would Cast Shadow on Arlington Cemetery – Washington Post

Views and Analysis

• This Is One of the Biggest Warning Signs for Republicans in the Midterms – Federica Cocco, Erin Cox and Amy L. Wong, Washington Post
• Trump's Midterm Affordability Crisis – Mark Niquette and Chris Kennedy, Bloomberg
• The Political Breakdown That Dare Not Speak Its Name – Clive Crook, Bloomberg
• Inside the Billionaires' War Against California's Proposed Wealth Tax – Theodore Schleifer and Erin Griffith, New York Times
• Gabriel Zucman and California's Not-So-Irrational Billionaires – Ramesh Ponnuru, Washington Post
• Is the California Wealth Tax's Sponsor a Plausible Argument Against It? – Harold Meyerson, American Prospect
• Big Tax-and-Spend Stakes in Colorado – Wall Street Journal Editorial Board
• 5 Things to Watch From the Federal Reserve's Next Meeting – Christopher Rugaber, Associated Press
• America Needs Canada's Aluminum. Trump's Tariff Exposed Just How Badly – Ryan Dezember, Wall Street Journal
• 'The Same Issue': Why the US and Canada Are Still a Ways From a Trade Deal – Daniel Desrochers, Ari Hawkins and Oliver Ward, Politico