The Trump administration is asking for input on an Obamacare program that collects and pays out billions of dollars to health insurance companies.
The administration had already announced it planned this year to authorize the program for 2017, after initially saying it was putting payments on hold. The Wednesday announcement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services asks for comment about how to move forward in 2018 for the payments that will go out in 2019.
The roughly $10 billion in payments, known as “risk adjustment,” are intended to reduce incentives for health insurers to try to bring in only healthy customers and avoid customers with pre-existing medical conditions that need ongoing treatment, such as cancer or diabetes. Insurers who have healthier customers chip into a fund to alleviate costs for those whose customers need more expensive medical services.
The Trump administration announced July 7 that it was putting the program on hold, a move blasted by Democrats as “sabotage” of the healthcare law. Some insurers said that the uncertainty over the payments would necessitate raising premiums to make up for the uncertainty.
But CMS said that it was pausing the payments because of a court ruling in February that found the formula used to calculate the payments was flawed. It lifted the hold a couple of weeks later following criticism.
“Today’s proposed rule continues our effort to help stabilize the individual and small group markets,” Seema Verma, CMS administrator, said in a statement. “Our goal has been, and will continue to be, to stabilize the market and provide American consumers with more affordable health coverage options.”
