THE ISSUE:

The president rules out letting millions of Americans get health insurance right now.

THE STAKES:

This could only hurt people and exacerbate a pandemic that he has mismanaged from the beginning and which grows worse by the day.

Take that, all you Americans without health insurance: No help from the federal government for you. So decrees President Donald Trump.

Mr. Trump could allow people terrified at the prospect of not having health care coverage in the midst of a global pandemic to enroll in plans through the Affordable Care Act's website at healthcare.gov. Although open enrollment for this year is over, the government has had special enrollment periods before in cases of disasters. So Mr. Trump could do this.

He just won't.

Why not? Because after three years in office, Mr. Trump is still spouting the fiction that he has a plan for better health care. He doesn't. Mr. Trump and his fellow Republicans had two years of full control of the White House and Congress to fulfill their vow to "repeal and replace" Obamacare. They didn't.

Yet Mr. Trump is still working to destroy the ACA with nothing to replace it. He rescinded the requirement that all Americans obtain health insurance -— a vital financial underpinning of the ACA -— and joined a group of Republican-run states seeking to overturn the ACA in a case expected to be argued before the Supreme Court this fall.

Asked about that lawsuit recently, Mr. Trump was as devoid of substance as ever: "What we want to do is get rid of the bad health care and put in a great health care." Vice President Mike Pence has offered similarly vague and empty rhetoric when asked about the plight of middle class Americans without insurance.

Now, a president bitterly determined to undo his predecessor's signature accomplishment will not let untold numbers of uninsured Americans use the Obamacare apparatus to find an affordable plan. The law does allow a special sign-up period for people who recently lost employer health coverage, which could mean Mr. Trump's decision at least may not harm the 10 million people who filed for unemployment in the last two weeks. But that still leaves more than 27 million others who simply don't have health insurance out of luck.

Compare Mr. Trump's vindictive politics with what New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is doing on several health care fronts. The state has directed insurers to defer premiums for consumers and businesses experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19. It also extended the enrollment period for people to apply for coverage through NY State of Health. Those are the actions of a government that understands that it works for the people, not for the political ends or the vengeful impulses of a single politician.

While some other states are similarly helping people obtain coverage, the federal government handles the Obamacare marketplace for two-thirds of the states.

Mr. Trump's decision is not only cruel, however; it's dangerous, and emblematic of his inept handling of the coronavirus pandemic from the outset, as he worried more about politics and optics than science and health outcomes. Many uninsured people likely won't get tested and treated if they fall ill, exacerbating a pandemic in which the U.S. now leads the world in confirmed cases.

A pandemic is no time for such sick, and sickening, political games.