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The Trump administration says it is pulling back advertising to promote HealthCare.gov as open enrollment draws to a close for this year. The Health and Human Services Department said in a statement Thursday that the government has withdrawn about $5 million in ads as part of an effort to cut costs. The statement said HHS has already spent more than $60 million to promote sign-ups this year under former President Barack Obama's health care law. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 1/27)

“The federal government has spent more than $60 million promoting the open enrollment period,” a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday. “We have pulled back roughly $5 million of the final placement in an effort to look for efficiencies where they exist.” (Pear, 1/26)

The directive stunned some staffers within the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a source close to the department who was briefed on the action. Staff members protested to Trump appointees at HHS that the sudden ban on outreach would suppress the enrollment of the most desirable customers — younger, healthier people who tend to buy coverage at the last minute — which in turn could raise insurance prices in the future, the source said. (Goldstein, 1/26)

Kevin Counihan, the former chief executive officer of the federal HealthCare.gov enrollment site, said the move risks lowering enrollment for 2017. That’s because many people sign up right at the deadline, he said in an e-mail. “We know that more young people enroll during the final days of Open Enrollment, but they need to be reminded of the Jan. 31 deadline,” he said. (Tracer, 1/26)

The decision sends the clearest signal yet that President Donald Trump is determined to fulfill his campaign pledge to repeal Obamacare. Hours after being sworn in, Trump issued his first executive order allowing federal officials to start unwinding parts of the law. "President Trump is signaling he's the new sheriff," said Rep. Chris Collins, (R-N.Y.), the president's top congressional ally. "He's been elected with a mandate. He's not going to tolerate his employees contradicting and undermining his mandate to get this country going in another direction." (Demko, 1/26)

Some Democrats reacted with anger, saying the Trump administration was simply trying to sabotage the law. “They're deliberately trying to undermine enrollment which was growing,” Topher Spiro, vice president for Health Policy at the liberal Center for American Progress, wrote on Twitter. “Healthy enrollment would disprove their false claim of a death spiral.” (Sullivan, 1/26)

President Donald Trump to Obamacare ads: Drop Dead! The Trump administration has reportedly killed media ads designed to encourage people to enroll in insurance coverage through the federal Obamacare marketplace before next Tuesday's open-enrollment deadline. (Mangan, 1/26)