The Affordable Care Act is still at risk if Trump or the House move to stop CSR Payments...
Last edited Fri Feb 24, 2017, 02:52 PM - Edit history (1)
The Affordable Care Act uses "Cost Sharing Reduction" payments to help make certain policies more affordable. A detailed explanation of the payments is here...
http://obamacarefacts.com/insurance-exchange/cost-sharing-reduction-subsidies-csr/
Simply put, Cost Sharing Reduction Subsidies lower the amount people have to pay out-of-pocket for deductibles, coinsurance, and copayments. To benefit, enrollees must participate in a Qualified Health Plan, and have enrolled through the Marketplace. These payments are absolutely essential to help keep the cost of plans down.
About 6 million enrollees (including 28,000 Native Americans) currently benefit from these subsidies. 1
What's the status of CSR payments? In November 2014, House Republicans filed suit to block CSR payments. A ruling was made against the payments, but the judge allowed the payments to continue pending appeal. In November, 2016, the House Republicans filed a motion to delay their own lawsuit while they try to figure out their alternative healthcare plan. 2
If the Trump administration and the House Republicans decide to pursue this lawsuit and stop CSR payments, the impact on the Affordable Care Act (and its enrollees) would be devastating. Under the Affordable Care Act, insurers would have to continue to provide the subsidies, and if not reimbursed would result in additional costs to them of about $7 billion this year and $130 billion over the next ten years. 2
Marilyn Tavenner, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, predicts just that if the Trump administration doesn't provide greater assurances of future subsidies: “I think we would lose more insurance companies...and insurers would hike prices by perhaps 20 percent."3
So there we have it... the next way that our President and the Republicans can cripple our health care system.
1 http://www.tribalselfgov.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/TSGAC-Status-of-CSR-Payments-2017-1-6a.pdf
2 http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2016/05/12/judge-blocks-reimbursement-of-insurers-for-aca-cost-sharing-reduction-payments
3 https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/health-insurers-warn-of-wider-defections-from-aca-marketplaces-for-2018/2017/02/01/c507ec78-e807-11e6-bf6f-301b6b443624_story.html?utm_term=.1877761feb85
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