The Trump administration and House Republicans are asking a federal appeals court for a 90-day extension in a case that’s casting a shadow of uncertainty over health insurance for millions of consumers.
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-Worst-case for insurers: The administration drops the appeal. It opens the individual insurance market to more choice while maintaining the consumer protections Americans have come to demand.
The group is one of the main lobbying associations for health insurers. Insurers must provide the discounts, even if they’re not reimbursed by the feds.
Insurers that do remain would have to raise rates an average of 19 percent above the amount they otherwise would be increasing the premiums for 2018, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
In 2015, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives sued the Obama administration, arguing that the payments had not been appropriated by Congress and were therefore illegal.
Hours before the administration and House Republicans’ filing, a major insurer group released a framework for market stability that relies in part on a continuation of such subsidies.
Democrat Party insiders are urging challenges in the districts of GOP incumbents the center of recent ethics troubles or whose constituents aren’t thrilled with President Donald Trump’s vision for the GOP.
Neither the Trump administration nor the House responded Monday to a motion from 16 Democratic attorneys general who sought last week to join the suit to defend the subsidies.
The judges have not yet acted on that request. AHIP urged Congress to promise that the cost-sharing payments will continue through next year. In a statement issued after the court filing, he said the tactic was destabilizing the market. Insurers received about $7 billion in these payments previous year.
The expectation is that insurance companies would spike premiums, which means the government would have to pay out higher premium subsidies to millions of Obamacare enrollees. Politico embraced the warped narrative about the bill’s campaign consequences, publishing a story with the headline “Obamacare repeal vote upends 2018 House landscape”.
“Unfortunately, by kicking the can down the road once again, the administration is continuing to sow uncertainty in the markets that will hurt millions of Americans”, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said.
Slavitt also said that the uncertainty over the fate of so-called cost-sharing reduction payments will lead some insurers to abandon selling individual health plans altogether.
The Congressional Budget Office plans to release its estimate Wednesday of the House health care bill’s cost and how it would affect coverage.
It is also important to undo the deep cuts Obamacare is scheduled to make to hospitals that serve underprivileged populations, and protect conscience and life by redirecting federal funding from abortion providers to community health clinics. That has insurers concerned that the monthly government payments could end and leave them exposed financially.
“It requires impressive mental gymnastics to make the case that Obamacare is working while Americans living in one-third of our nation’s counties have only one option for health-care coverage and premiums and deductibles continue to rise”, Marre said. This would reverse major gains in coverage among the uninsured since Obamacare’s exchanges opened and Medicaid expansion went into effect in 2014.
I can’t help but question whether Democrats really think people are buying the argument that Republicans don’t just want to take away your health care, but want you dead, too.
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There could be unintended consequences, as well. Without those subsidies, experts say, premiums could jump about 20 percent in 2018. Instead, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia granted a joint motion from the administration and House Republicans to delay the deadline for 90 days.
