Trump’s premium pinch

President Trump recently canceled federal subsidies that help people who buy health insurance through public exchanges, arguing that the payments were never authorized by Congress and represent a bailout for insurance companies. Since then he has sent mixed messages on a hard-fought bipartisan compromise that would serve as an interim fix.

Now the Trump administration has informed Gov. Charlie Baker that he can’t use a different pool of federal money to continue making the cost-sharing reduction payments. (Yesterday Baker said he’ll use state funds to shield consumers from a sudden increase between now and the end of the year.)

Gee, if we didn’t know better we’d think the president was actually trying to sow chaos in the health insurance market ...

The payments help insurance companies provide coverage at lower costs to those who buy their plans through the exchanges. Concerned that Trump would cancel the payments, Baker had sought a waiver to continue them while Congress works on a solution.

The response this week to that waiver request was a firm no, and over a technicality. The feds simply don’t have enough time to vet the request before open enrollment begins Nov. 1.

So for anyone keeping track, yes, that means the Trump administration rejected a solution to a problem of the Trump administration’s own creation.

The president gets to claim another victory in his ongoing war against Obamacare, but actual human beings will soon feel the actual pinch of higher premiums.

Anyone else tired of all this winning?