Uncertainty over the future of health care continues
As a way to cool down the health care contention in Washington, the Trump administration on Wednesday, August 16 decided to continue to fund key health care subsidies to insurers through the month of August.
Previously, the president has threatened to end the reimbursements paid to insurers for subsidies in order to allow passage of bills that vow to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
The subsidies in question reduce out-of-pocket health expenses for low- and middle-income consumers that receive insurance through Obamacare.
Congressional Republicans have repeatedly pressured the White House to continue the payments in fear that cutting them off would create disorder in insurance marketplaces.
The decision to continue the federal funding through August was announced one day after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) — the nonpartisan body of Congress that analyzes economic outcomes of various proposed bills — warned that Obamacare premiums would skyrocket by 20 percent if the federal government seized payments to these subsidies.
Increasing the premiums would, in turn, increase federal spending on other government subsidies, according to the CBO’s report.
An official from the White House announced that the administration’s payment would total about $600 million. As of press time, it is unconfirmed whether the administration will continue the cost-sharing reduction payments after August.
Uncertainty over the future of American health care from the federal level continues to worry many Americans as well as states that fear the administration’s lack of direction.
Many states’ health care exchanges, like Covered California, are in disarray amid the administration’s lack of commitment to continuing funding of these subsidies.
The board of directors of Covered California blamed the federal government’s lack of a plan for interfering with their finalizations for premiums for 2018 and consumers’ preparation for open enrollment on November 1.
“The lack of clarity and direction at the federal level continues to be a challenge,” said Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee. “While we are doing our best to manage a difficult situation, we hope Congress and the administration will provide clear guidance on how [they intend] to stabilize the individual insurance market.”
Earlier this month, Covered California announced statewide-rate hikes of 12.5 percent and an additional average surcharge of 12.4 percent on silver plans if the federal government discontinues the payments.
In order to avoid increasing the surcharge, the exchange pushed back the deadline from at the end of August to September 30.
“Our hope is that by changing the deadline to allow Congress to act, we will not have to deal with the surcharge,” Lee said.
As of 2017, there are more than 1.7 million Californians currently enrolled in Covered California. (Klarize Medenilla/AJPress)
