A collection of insurer, provider, and business groups wrote to Congress on Saturday asking them to step in and fund Obamacare insurer payments after President Trump cut them off.
The major insurance lobbying group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, joined with the business lobby U.S. Chamber of Commerce, doctors’ group American Medical Association, and other medical groups in the letter, addressed to the congressional leaders of both parties. The groups say without the payments the premiums on Obamacare’s exchanges on the individual market will go up and harm families.
“With the administration’s decision to terminate this funding, Congress must take action immediately,” the letter said.
Trump canceled the payments on late Thursday. The administration said the payments were unlawful because they have not been appropriated by Congress, referencing a ruling last year from a federal judge.
Insurers, businesses, and doctor and hospital groups have decried the decision to end the payments that go to insurers to reimburse them for lowering copays and deductibles for low-income Obamacare customers.
Insurers are still required to lower the out-of-pocket costs, and will make up the costs by rising premiums overall. An estimate from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation predicts premiums for the average Obamacare plan will go up by 19 percent.
The letter said that ending the payments wouldn’t just increase premiums but also the budget deficit by $194 billion over the next 10 years. The reason is because income-based tax credits that pay down the cost of insurance rise with any premium hikes.
Nearly 6 million people qualify for the cost-sharing reductions and the federal government made $7 billion in payments last year.
It remains unclear whether Congress will take any action to fund the payments. Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., have been in talks to fund them for two years in exchange for giving states flexibility from Obamacare regulations.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., is also working on his own deal that could get support from House Republicans, which have ben resistant to fund the payments that they call “bailouts.”
The American Hospital Association, American Benefits Council, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, and Federation of American Hospitals also signed the letter.
