Trump To Make Obamacare Subsidy Payments After Threatening To End Them

[DonViejo]

Source: Talking Points Memo



By ALICE OLLSTEIN Published AUGUST 16, 2017 3:53 PM

A White House official confirmed to TPM on Wednesday that the Trump administration will make a multi-billion dollar payment to health insurers to subsidize coverage under the Affordable Care Act for about 18 million low-income people with severe health needs.

The monthly payment, which Trump has repeatedly threatened to cut off and which some Congress members have decried as a bailout, is due in late August. The decision comes just one day after the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office released a report showing that cutting off the cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments would cause a spike in health insurance premiums across the individual market, and would increase the federal deficit by nearly $200 billion dollars.

As the Trump administration toys with ending the CSR payments, a pending lawsuit on the executive branch’s right to make payments remains in limbo. The ongoing uncertainty about the future of the payments, meanwhile, is already wreaking havoc in the insurance market, causing insurers to raise their rates or leave certain areas altogether.

To address this instability, Republican lawmakers have introduced bills that would take the decision out of President Trump’s hands by having Congress appropriate the funding for the CSRs for at least a year.

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-csr-payments-august

[BumRushDaShow]

1. I wonder if Kelly made him do this.

I expect this is going on in the West Wing between the Bannon/Miller vs McMaster/Kelly.

[Blue Idaho]

2. The Fascist fucker already has blood on his hands

So I guess his PR team doesn't want him to have the death of thousands on his hands too.

[Shrike47]

3. Well good. He's doing the right thing for a change.

[katmondoo]

4. I thought the House was in charge of spending

How does Trump get to decide where the money goes?

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Congress appropriates

but the Executive can dick around and even get fines for not "paying" on time.

However regarding these subsidy payments, the issue of whether Congress actually appropriated the funding, is stuck in the courts (i.e., the dispute being whether the language in the original PPACA included appropriations for the subsidies or whether those appropriations could not have been "assumed" and would have had to happen separately on a yearly or multi-year basis).

The Judge put a stay on her ruling in favor of the U.S. (GOP-controlled) House's argument that appropriations had not been authorized, pending an appeal (which had been underway by the Obama administration before the election). Of course with Drumpf, he could let the appeal lapse and kill the ACA right now (unless other parties pick up that appeal - which I think may have happened - i.e., I think some states were given the go-ahead by a federal judge to move ahead with the appeal).

[Maeve]

5. He's dealing with all the negative press his widdle ego can handle right now

Or he realized it was a stupid business move...

[Marie Marie]

8. Or, he will change his mind again next week.

I am getting whiplash from his abrupt policy changes.

[Midnight Writer]

10. Right. His pronouncements are meaningless.

[BigmanPigman]

7. He is purposely causing havoc with people's lives by doing this on a month by month basis.

He loves to hit people he is so mean and cruel. Meanwhile the insurance companies have to raise rates since they have no idea what he is going to do. He is a fucked up sociopath. He has a lot in common with his idol Adolf.

[Doug the Dem]

9. Bluster

Then back down. Trump at his Chickenshit Best!