The massive appropriations bill that Congress is poised to pass seems to block Obamacare’s bailout of health insurers.
“Risk corridors” is a provision of Obamacare that basically taxes insurers if their profits are big enough, and pays them if they don’t profit enough. Under Obamacare, the money paid out can exceed the money brought in, meaning taxpayers might have to bail out health insurance companies
Section 227 of the omnibus bill, by my reading, prevents HHS from making payments to insurers through the risk corridor provision beyond the money brought in through the risk corridors. So struggling insurers can still get risk corridor money, but only if successful insurers have paid in enough to cover those payments. In other words, the program is made budget neutral and becomes a true risk-pooling program.
This is an important development. It puts House Republican leaders on record fighting against corporate welfare. A party that preaches limited government ought to oppose a taxpayer bailout of insurance companies. But insurance companies have lobbied hard against any cap on the risk corridors. This would mean that the GOP stood up to the insurer lobby.
If Republicans are getting real about battling corporate welfare, then here’s a full anti-corporate-welfare agenda they can take up in the next Congress.
The other corporate welfare-related provision in the bill regards Ex-Im. By my reading, the bill clarifies that if Ex-Im’s charter is not renewed, the agency can continue to administer its outstanding financing deals — a sensible provision that may actually make it easier to kill Ex-Im this summer.
