The cost of Bamcare chaos

Thanks, Donald. Thanks, Paul. The rich guy in the big house in Washington and his on-again, off-again friend down the street in the U.S. Capitol are soaking New Yorkers who rely on the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges for their health insurance. Having neither repealed nor replaced Obamacare — never mind that Rose Garden shoulderslap-fest in May — President Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan are now passing the buck to consumers.

Last week, the state’s Department of Financial Services announced rate hikes of 14.5% for individual health plans on New York’s insurance exchanges for 2018.

And noted, emphatically, that the rates authorized by the state would have been lower but for the turbulence introduced not only by congressional brinkmanship over health insurance, but by the persistent threat that roughly $7 billion in annual federal payments that enable insurers to lower co-payments and deductibles will disappear without a trace.

Despite responsible Democrats and Republicans alike urging Trump to keep making the costsharing reduction payments, the President continues to toy with the prospect of cutting them off entirely.

The childish ultimatum he calls leadership goes like this: Congress must pass a terrible reform plan — including the one he himself labeled “mean,” which would have left 23 million more Americans uninsured — or else he’ll inflict pain on the people.

But, happier to sow chaos than he is to follow through on a threat, he has yet to actually withhold a payment. Another one is due Monday, and Trump has signaled he’ll pony up.

The uncertainty is self-inflicted, and utterly unnecessary, and maddening.

Now comes the Congressional Budget Office to calculate premium hikes of 20% and rising nationwide, costing the federal government $194 billion in premium subsidies over 10 years, should the cost-sharing funds evaporate.

Trump claims Obamacare is imploding; in fact, he’s standing right beside it, hands pressing down on the dynamite plunger.