Trump again threatens Congress members’ health insurance

The ruling could make it more hard for the White House to carry out recent threats by President Donald Trump to cut off the payments, giving legal standing to a new set of the payments’ defenders.

And it quoted Trump’s social media posting Monday that said, “If ObamaCare is hurting people, & it is, why shouldn’t it hurt the insurance companies & why should Congress not be paying what public pays?” And so I feel like it’s much more of a contractual payment than a bailout for insurers.

Those are payments to insurance companies that help low income customers buy health plans on the individual market.

“In this process, there is also something called cost-sharing reductions, payments that were never appropriated”, he continued, noting the Obama administration started to pay them at a cost of $135 billion to be dispersed over the next 10 years. As of today, it has yet to take a formal legal position on the validity of the payments, but has expressed skepticism repeatedly. And, other states that have released their rates have said that they had to make their rates higher because of the uncertainty created by Trump’s threats to cancel the payments – in Colorado it means rate increases almost 30% more for next year. “If that’s not going to happen, why should the American taxpayers continue to bail out insurance industry?” Schumer also said that if the payments stop, all premiums will go up and health care will be very expensive.

The subsidies, totaling about $7 billion a year, help reduce deductibles and copayments for consumers with modest incomes. Margaret Murray is CEO of the Association for Community Affiliated Plans, which represents these “safety net health plans” aimed at people with lower incomes.

The court’s order allows Democrats who back the law to have a say in the legal fight, giving them the power to block a settlement or appeal a ruling blocking the payments.

This required a special OPM decision to categorize Congress as a small business, allowing lawmakers and their aides to get government payments as an employer contribution through the exchange.

President Donald Trump, frustrated that he and fellow Republicans in Congress have been unable to keep campaign promises to repeal and replace Obamacare, has threatened to stop making the so-called cost-sharing subsidy, or CSR, payments. Insurance companies would have no choice but to accelerate the process some already have begun, of pulling out of entire regions. And that will lead the Treasury to spend more on subsidies to policyholders who qualify, according to an analysis by the consulting firm Oliver Wyman. Almost three-quarters of the people (6.8 million) who purchased 2017 health insurance via the federal exchanges had incomes meeting that threshold and thus could qualify for CSR. But for those who don’t receive tax credits – if you’re a family of 4 making about $98,000 or more a year – you’ll be the one making up the difference.

Insurance companies have until late September to raise rates and finalise their coverage areas for 2018.

On Sunday, Politico reported that the House Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of moderate Democrats and Republicans, is working with other centrists on a package of reforms to stabilize the state insurance exchanges – many of which are facing the possibility of sharply rising rates at least in part as a result of the uncertainty in Washington.

Under the current arrangement, members of Congress can choose a gold-level Obamacare policy and receive federal subsidies that cover 72 percent of the cost of the premium. Erasing that law has been a top priority for Trump and most GOP congressional candidates, and failing to do it as they control the White House and Congress has angered many in the party.

In this Tuesday, July 25, 2017, photo, Sen. As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. And the proposed cuts in Medicaid were said to take health care away from millions of poor Americans. Not receiving CSRs in 2018 could have a serious impact on what those look like.

A federal judge agreed, but the Obama administration appealed.