The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate’s health committee have struck a deal to fund reimbursements to insurers that discount prices for low-income individuals, just days after the Trump administration determined the payments were illegal without an appropriation from Congress.
Conservatives wanted to give states additional wiggle room under Obamacare in exchange for reinstating the reimbursements, which they appear to have achieved to some extent. Sen. Lamar Alexander, the chairman of Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, had told the Associated Press there was a stumbling block in negotiations over the definition of “meaningful” in providing meaningful waiver authority. But he left a lunch meeting with Republicans saying he and ranking member Sen. Patty Murray “have an agreement” the “president likes.”
Senators reportedly were to be briefed on the details Tuesday at 5 p.m.; an initial report from Politico indicated the agreement would expand the availability of Obamacare-noncompliant coverage.
Trump ended the insurance payments on Friday, a decision many Republicans backed for legal reasons. During the John Boehner-Barack Obama era, the House and White House disagreed over whether the health care law allowed the administration to make the reimbursements. Although they were required by law, the House sued in 2014, arguing Congress hadn’t allocated money for the payments. A U.S. district court judge agreed two years later. She stayed her decision pending an appeal from Obama’s lawyers.
The current administration’s actions brought a swift, if temporary resolution to the disagreement. Experts warned that insurers would raise premiums if the reimbursements were discontinued. Obamacare requires carriers to lower the out-of-pocket costs of individuals who earn between 100 percent and 250 percent of the federal poverty level and purchase a silver-level plan. Without the government subsidies, insurers would find other ways to make up for the loss, like hiking premiums.
The president has played both sides in both criticizing the payments on the merits, not the legality, and supporting their continuance. “The gravy train ended the day I knocked out the insurance companies’ money,” he said on Monday. “Hundreds of millions of dollars a month handed to the insurance companies for very little reason, believe me. I want the money to go to the people. I want the money to go to poor people that need. I want the money to go to people that need proper health care, not to insurance companies, which is where it’s going. As of last week I ended that.”
But Trump is behind Alexander and Murray’s proposal to restart the subsidies temporarily. “It is a short-term solution so we don’t have this very dangerous little period,” he said Tuesday. The bill floated would fund the payments for two plan years.
