Obamacare battle cost looms over consumers
WASHINGTON — A series of events yesterday boosted the urgency for lawmakers to act to protect American consumers and patients from paying the price, literally, for the political war being waged over Obamacare in Washington.
A California federal judge declined to force the Trump administration to immediately resume paying costsaving subsidies under the federal health care law, leaving an executive order signed by President Trump. The ruling came as part of a legal challenge by 18 states, including Massachusetts, as well as the District of Columbia, to Trump’s order.
Also yesterday, an analysis of government data by consulting firm Avalere Health forecast that the health are market instability caused by Trump’s order nixing the payments will cause an average 34 percent spike in premiums for popular silver health care plans.
That spurred the two chief sponsors of a bipartisan short-term compromise to temporarily restore out-ofpocket cost-reduction payments while giving states more regulatory flexibility to take to the Senate floor to implore their House colleagues and President Trump to act.
“Here’s what we know: patients and families across the country … are rightly worried about their health care, premiums, benefits, coverage, and they are realizing they are about to pay the price for the uncertainty and partisanship we have seen on health care over the last nine months,” U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said.
The other chief co-sponsor, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), cited a newly released Congressional Budget Office score that shows that the Alexander-Murray plan would be a cost-saver for families and the government, and not a windfall for the insurance companies, as Trump has repeatedly claimed.
The CBO estimated that the legislation would reduce the deficit by $3.8 billion through 2017.
“Not only does it not cost anything, it saves the taxpayer money,” said Alexander, noting that insurers would be required to issue rebates to consumers and the federal government.
“So the CBO has found that our proposal benefits taxpayers and benefits consumers, not insurance companies,” Alexander said.
The measure has the support of at least 60 senators — 12 Republican sponsors as well as the entire 48-member Democratic caucus. With just days until the start of the open enrollment period — dramatically shortened under the Trump administration — it is hard to imagine what incentive House Republicans and the White House have for failing to back the bill that Trump was for before he was against it. Unless the goal is just to gut Obamacare, no matter how high the cost to Americans.