ObamaCare insurer bailout is illegal, according to government’s own reports
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, is moving forward with a bailout of ObamaCare health-insurance exchange insurers for 2015 even though they have been told that their scheme is illegal. The Affordable Care Act, or ACA, includes provisions to pay insurers for their financial losses in the ObamaCare exchanges. Money is...
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, is moving forward with a bailout of ObamaCare health-insurance exchange insurers for 2015 even though they have been told that their scheme is illegal.
The Affordable Care Act, or ACA, includes provisions to pay insurers for their financial losses in the ObamaCare exchanges. Money is pooled from each insurer and added to tax revenue from a new tax on health-insurance plans. These funds were supposed to be budget neutral and limited to the amount of money available from insurers and the health plan tax pool of money. But due to new regulations issued by the Obama administration, taxpayers could now be on the hook for a blank check to the insurance industry if their losses are higher than originally predicted. Bailouts are not supposed to be paid without a congressional appropriation and no appropriations have been authorized after Dec. 11 of this year.
But HHS is moving forward with a bailout in 2015 even though a recent legal opinion from the U.S. General Accounting Office concluded that HHS cannot make risk corridor payments in 2015 and beyond without congressional authorization. The Congressional Research Service has also issued a similar opinion. So far, HHS has not obtained that authorization.
If HHS bails out insurers, it will not only be the 25th unilateral action on the part of the Obama administration to change the ACA, but it will also put taxpayers in the unfair and costly position of paying an even-higher price for this calamitous law.
A recent survey conducted by McLaughlin & Associates found that 73 percent of likely voters oppose an insurance company bailout. That opposition is well founded. The same Americans who are having their health insurance policies canceled as a direct result of ObamaCare and who are being forced to pay more for their coverage would also be footing the bill for a bailout.
This issue is yet another reason why it is time to go back to the drawing board to craft solutions that give individuals control, rather than giving federal bureaucrats and the health insurance lobby authority over health-care decisions.
Forcing citizens to foot the bill for even more ObamaCare failure is simply not fair, and it further destroys the prospect of affordable health care.