Four days before the end of open enrollment, the Trump administration has reportedly killed media ads designed to encourage people to sign up for Obamacare coverage.
The Healthcare.gov site remains opens.
The government is no longer being promoting enrollment, and has also ended other outreach efforts such as sending emails to consumers who started, but did not complete the enrollment process, according to Politico, which broke the story Thursday.
Open enrollment is ongoing through January 31.
Andy Slavitt, former acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, expressed his anger at the decision on Twitter.
"Sign up 4 coverage goes thru Jan 31. Get the coverage you're entitled to by law. RT so this isn't the only notice of this."
Slavitt said "Shame" on Twitter to the reports of the ads being pulled, saying enrollment was surging and in the final days of open enrollment, the Affordable Care Act attracts the younger, healthier consumers it needs.
"My memory is Congress writes law, Exec branch administers," Slavitt tweeted. "If we had done this, there'd be a Congressional hearing."
Since Slavitt left office at the time of Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration, his former blog posts on the CMS website have been removed, without explanation. Linking to the sites brings up the message, "The page you are looking for no longer exists."
Kevin Counihan, who formerly headed the HealthCare.gov marketplace, told CNBC the move to end the ads was an "outrageous decision" to "sabotage open enrollment" in Obamacare.
The administration's move comes less than a week after Donald Trump's inauguration as president. One Jan. 20, the president signed an executive order that signaled a policy change on the ACA's mandate for individuals and employers to get health insurance coverage, or face financial penalty.
His pick for Health and Human Services secretary, Tom Price, is expected to follow through on that policy if he is confirmed and takes office.
An HHS spokesman was quoted by Politico as saying, "HHS has pulled back roughly $5 million of the final placement in an effort to look for efficiencies, where they exist."
However Politico said the Obama administration had already paid for and scheduled the ads.
An estimated 8.8 million people have signed up for coverage on the federal marketplace, a number that CMS reported is ahead of last year's figures.
America's Health Insurance Plans released a statement on the ads being pulled.
"Every American deserves coverage, and open enrollment is the best opportunity people have to get coverage that gives them access to high-quality care," AHIP said. "At a time when the individual market faces challenges, we need as many people as possible to participate - so that costs go down for everyone. Balancing out the risk pool is an important action that can be taken now to help stabilize the market, improve affordability, and send strong signals as health plans develop their products for 2018."
Twitter: @SusanJMorse