Hardball: Trump Cuts Obamacare Subsidies to Insurance Companies
Donald Trump announced Friday morning that he’s stopping $7 billion in payments to health insurance companies that President Barack Obama had authorized.
“The Democrats ObamaCare is imploding,” the president tweeted early Friday morning. “Massive payments to their insurance companies has stopped. Dems should call me to fix!”
It's the second change to Obamacare the president has made in the past 24 hours, and follows his executive order on Thursday allowing health insurance plans to be purchased across state lines, and letting people "group up" to buy health insurance through associations, cooperatives, and small businesses, bypassing the Affordable Care Act altogether.
"This has been a major frustration for the president," Trump's former deputy campaign manager David Bossie said on "Fox & Friends" on Friday. "This is not what he wanted to do, obviously. He wanted to have Congress fix it. He wanted to repeal and replace. And John McCain, singlehandedly, saved ObamaCare."
The White House issued a formal statement on Friday, saying:
"Based on guidance from the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services has concluded there is no appropriation for cost-sharing reduction payments to insurance companies under Obamacare. In light of this analysis, the government cannot lawfully make the cost-sharing payment."
Attorney General Jeff Sessions appeared on "Fox & Friends" on Friday morning as well, speaking about the so-called bailouts to insurance companies that Trump is cutting:
"There's been controversy from the beginning ... The question was, Steve, can you actually, the president, the executive branch, spend this $7 billion a year to subsidize these insurance companies? Without an appropriation of Congress, it's clear — we believe — that the appropriation must come from Congress, the president cannot do it. A federal judge has already held that that is the case."
"The executive branch cannot spend money, under the Constitution, that the Congress has not appropriated," Sessions said.
Despite the $7 billion that insurance companies have gotten from the U.S. government, health insurance premiums and deductibles under the Affordable Care Act have shot up. Deductibles, what a person has to pay out of pocket before insurance coverage begins, are now more than $3,000 in most states.
http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/hard-ball-trump-cuts-obamacare-subsidies-to-states/
by Margaret Menge | Updated 13 Oct 2017 at 1:42 PM
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"The president tweeted on Friday morning that he's stopping the 'massive payments' to private insurers"
The truth about Dumpcare:
Just an example from this excellent NYT editorial: "Single adults making more than $48,240 or families of four earning more than $98,400 will be the biggest losers. These people don’t qualify for subsidies, so they pay the full cost of the premiums. Higher premiums will come out of their hide. Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, frequently points to a constituent who already pays over $40,000 to insure his family every year. His choices will get worse. He can go without coverage, pay more, earn less so that his family can qualify for subsidies or find a job with employer-sponsored coverage."
Thanks Dump
Congress never appropriated tax dollars to subsidize INSURANCE COMPANIES!
How would you feel if President Trump just went out and appropriated money for the border wall ????