Trump Continuing Obamacare Bailout of Insurance Companies Instead of Full Repeal Like Promised During the Election
Is it really too much to ask Trump to do what he promised during the campaign? Trump thinks so and attacks conservatives who disagree.
The Trump administration said it will reimburse Obamacare insurers for covering deductibles and co-pays for some of their customers, which could avert major insurer defections or price increases.
The administration will continue to pay out cost-sharing reductions, which are the subject of a House lawsuit against the former Obama administration. Under the law, insurers are supposed to lower the cost of copays and deductibles for low-income Obamacare customers and the government reimburses them.
Those reimbursements will continue for now.
“The precedent is that while the lawsuit is being litigated the cost-sharing subsidies will be funded,” an administration official told the Washington Examiner.
Last year, a federal judge ruled in favor of the House over a lawsuit that said the Obama administration had bypassed Congress to get approval for funding the cost-sharing reductions. The Obama administration appealed that ruling, but the Trump administration has not said if it would take up that appeal.
A status report on the lawsuit is due May 22.
Insurers have been left in limbo wondering whether they would still receive the cost-sharing reduction payments under the Trump administration. Insurers and experts have said that failure to get the payments would lead to even more defections from the individual market, which includes Obamacare’s marketplaces, or even bigger premium increases.
