GOP Seeks Way to Pay Insurers So More Don't Drop ACA Plans
- Congress may appropriate $7 billion for subsidies for poor
- House has sued HHS over Obamacare plan to cut insurance costs
Republican lawmakers are seeking a way to guarantee that health insurers get $7 billion promised to them to help low-income people afford the out-of-pocket costs of Obamacare
plans, in an effort to keep more companies from leaving markets created by the law.
The payments are threatened by a lawsuit that GOP House members filed during the Obama administration that argues the Department of Health and Human Services inappropriately funded the payments on its own, rather than going through the congressional appropriations process. Insurers have said they would consider nonpayment a breach of contract and may drop the plans mid-year, Representative Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican who chairs a key health committee, told reporters in the Capitol on Thursday.