If insurance companies can’t convince the courts to give them more of your money, they’re going to try to convince Congress. And that’s the reason!
Obama’s promises: Still not worth anything
If insurance companies can’t convince the courts to give them more of your money, they’re going to try to convince Congress.
Obamacare defenders claim that the health insurance exchanges set up in states under Obamacare are imploding because Republicans won’t make payments to insurance companies that are losing money on exchange plans.
The Trump administration has continued to pay these subsidies, even though Congress has not authorized the spending, while dozens of lawsuits over the “risk corridors” work their way up the appellate chain. Insurance companies keep getting bailed out, but blame uncertainty about future bailouts for the utter failure of Obamacare to do anything it was supposed to do.
Tom Policelli, CEO of Minuteman Health, says the Obama administration “repeatedly assured us” that the risk corridor payments were an obligation that the government would be forced to keep.
Get in line, Tom. Barack Obama’s assurances and $2 will get you a cup of coffee.
The legal issue is whether Obamacare essentially created an entitlement for insurance companies, or whether the billions of dollars at stake have to be approved by Congress.
Meanwhile, some Congressional Republicans are making noises about joining Democrats to “stabilize” the Obamacare exchanges by authorizing the bailouts. Are insurance companies desperate enough for the cash to give up the Obamacare mandates?
