Researchers rushing to copy ACA data before Trump takes office

Groups with data-use agreements with HHS and CMS are scrambling to copy healthcare data and documents in case President-elect Donald Trump’s administration erases it once in office—a fear Trump-aligned groups call “paranoid.”

POLITICO reports the concerns came from the Obama administration’s health reform director, Jeanne Lambrew, who warned the Trump White House could “might expunge reams of information from public websites and end access to data.” That’s led to researchers rushing to copy information like Afforable Care Act enrollment data, regulatory guidance on premiums and other documents.

"It's a serious concern," said one former HHS researcher, who believes this transition will be significantly worse than the last presidential handoff from a Democrat to a Republican. "We've seen during Trump's campaign, and at the beginning of the transition … a lot of statements where the distinctions between rhetoric and fact become very loose."

Most researchers wouldn’t speak publicly about the copying efforts. For Republican health policy experts, their fears are unfounded.

“Suppressing data in this era of 'open everything' is not a good idea and inevitably comes out,” says Tevi Troy, the head of the American Health Policy Institute and a former HHS official in the George W. Bush administration. “From what I know from working in government, I’m skeptical.”

For more on what has health researchers spooked, and how deleting this data could benefit lawmakers who want a quick ACA repeal, click on the link below: