The Trump administration will continue ObamaCare’s insurer payments while a House lawsuit runs its course.
House Republicans sued the Obama administration over the payments — called cost-sharing reductions — that reimburse insurers for giving discounted deductibles to low-income ObamaCare enrollees.
An administration official confirmed to The Hill Monday that the Health and Human Services Department would continue the payments while the lawsuit is being litigated.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said something similar last week.
“While the lawsuit is being litigated, then the administration funds these benefits. That’s how they’ve been doing it and I don’t see any change in that,” Ryan said Thursday.
Insurers are worried the payments could be discontinued, which could throw things into chaos and cause insurers to pull out of the marketplaces.
However, Kristine Grow, a spokeswoman for America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), said Thursday that it is not enough for the payments to simply continue during the lawsuit. She said insurers need certainty that the payments will be there throughout 2018, or else they might need to raise premiums for next year to factor in the uncertainty.
She said AHIP would like to see Congress appropriate the money for 2018 or provide some other guarantee that the money will be there throughout next year.