President Trump said Sunday morning that Democrats need “big money” to save Obamacare as he looks to use insurer payments as a bargaining chip in government spending talks.
“Obamacare is in serious trouble,” Trump tweeted. “The Dems need big money to keep it going — otherwise it dies far sooner than anyone would have thought.”
ObamaCare is in serious trouble. The Dems need big money to keep it going – otherwise it dies far sooner than anyone would have thought.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017
The big money Trump may be referring to is cost-sharing reduction payments that reimburse insurers for lowering copays and deductibles for poor Obamacare customers.
Insurers have to lower the cost-sharing payments for these customers, and get that money back from the federal government. Without the funding, insurers have threatened to either raise prices significantly or leave the individual market altogether.
The individual market includes Obamacare’s exchanges and is for people that don’t have insurance via work.
Trump previously said he could hold up the cost-sharing reduction payments in order to get Democrats on board with repealing Obamacare.
But now Trump appears to be using the payments as a bargaining chip to get money for his border wall.
Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, said that the White House proposed to Democrats they would get $1 of insurer payments for every $1 of border wall money. But Democrats slammed the proposal, saying that Trump aims to hold millions’ of people’s healthcare hostage.
Last year, the federal government paid out $7 billion in cost-sharing payments.
The payments were also the subject of a House lawsuit, which sued the former Obama administration arguing that the payments needed a congressional appropriation. A federal judge sided with the House but stayed her ruling until an appeal is exhausted.
It remains unclear whether Trump will continue that appeal. A status report on the lawsuit is due next month.
