The House and the Trump administration officially asked a federal court Monday for more time to figure out what to do about Obamacare’s insurer subsidies.
A motion asking for a 90-day delay was filed in the lawsuit House v. Price in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The delay means that insurers won’t know the fate of Obamacare’s cost-sharing reduction payments by the time they file rates for 2018 Obamacare plans.
A House aide told the Washington Examiner that the two parties have to file a status report every 90 days. Since repeal is still being considered in Congress, they are asking for more time.
The House passed the American Health Care Act, which would partially repeal Obamacare, this month by a 217-213 vote. However, the Senate has said that it is scrapping most of the bill and moving forward with its own version. Whether a healthcare bill will be sent to President Trump’s desk by the next status report in August is not clear.
Congress is out during August and any bill that passes the Senate would have to head back to the House to approve any changes made in the upper chamber.
Meanwhile, insurers have until June 21 to file their rates for 2018 Obamacare plans on the individual market, which is used by people who don’t have insurance through their employers.
Insurers have said they desperately need to know if the payments, called CSRs, will remain in 2018, but haven’t gotten an answer from Trump. The president has suggested using the payments as leverage to get Democrats to support his policy initiatives.
For instance, during spending negotiations Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, floated exchanging CSR payments for funding for a border wall. The idea was met with stiff pushback from Democrats.
A federal judge ruled last year that the CSR payments were not appropriated by Congress, as required, but stayed that ruling until Trump decided what he wanted to do. If Trump wants, he could pull the appeal from the Obama administration and end the CSRs. The lawsuit was filed by the House against the Obama administration in 2014.
Or Congress could step in and approve an emergency appropriation for the payments.
The next major development will involve whether Trump will have a say in whether to end it.
A group of 15 states filed a motion in the case to take up the fight to preserve the CSRs. The court hasn’t ruled on the motion, but another one filed by individuals seeking to intervene in the suit earlier this year was struck down.
