The House will vote on a bill to shield Obamacare customers from having to pay the government penalty for not having insurance if they lose their plan due to their taxpayer-funded insurer collapsing.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters Monday that the House will vote Tuesday on a bill that aims to shield Obamacare customers from paying the penalty if their consumer oriented and operated plan collapses. It takes aim at an unpopular Obamacare program that has seen 17 of the 23 co-ops shut down because of financial problems.
A majority of co-ops that shut down will do so at the end of the year, giving Obamacare customers time to find a new plan during open enrollment. However, some co-ops have shut down in the middle of the year and left customers without a plan.
A latest example is Ohio’s co-op, which shut down earlier this year and resulted in 22,000 people losing their coverage.
The legislation would ensure those customers don’t have to pay any part of the individual mandate penalty for not having insurance, which this year is $695 per person.
The federal government awarded about $2.1 billion in taxpayer funding to the co-ops to help establish them.
The bill passed the House Ways and Means Committee on Sept. 8 but was opposed by Democrats.
“We have no evidence to even guess how common this scenario may actually be,” said Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., at the markup hearing.
