Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, M.D., issued the following statement regarding today’s announcement by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that issuer participation in the federally-facilitated health insurance exchange continues to decline:

“Year after year, insurers are finding Obamacare unworkable and are abandoning it in droves. Barely half the number of issuers who initially filed to sell plans on Healthcare.gov in 2016 want to participate in 2018, and a vast majority of them left before the most recent open enrollment period.

“The situation has never been more dire. Americans are continuing to lose what health coverage they have and are forced to choose from fewer options or pay the IRS for the right to go without. This further limits their access to the doctors and healthcare services they need.

“Congress must act now to repair the damage Obamacare has inflicted and put in place a patient-centered system that is responsive to the needs of individuals and families, not the demands of Washington.”