Court urged to save health subsidies
Becerra joins call to preserve cost-sharing payments to insurers.
SACRAMENTO — California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra asked a federal court Wednesday to issue an emergency temporary restraining order to block the Trump administration from cutting off cost-sharing subsidies that help reduce the price of healthcare for millions of Americans.
A week after California and 17 other states filed a lawsuit challenging the decision on its merits, the same attorneys general requested a restraining order to avoid immediate harm to millions of people who get subsidized healthcare through the Affordable Care Act, Becerra said.
“The actions of the president of the United States to deny people affordable healthcare insurance, or make it so they will pay more money out of pocket for that health insurance, is not only irresponsible, but it is illegal,” Becerra said at a news conference.
President Trump has said on Twitter that he was stopping “massive subsidy payments” to Democrats’ “pet insurance companies,” and called on Congress to negotiate a fix.
The latest court filing argues the federal government payments are required by law and the decision to stop making the payments violates administrative procedures.
The request for a restraining order says the states “have shown that immediate and irreparable injury” is threatened to “millions of Americans who have access to affordable healthcare coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act if defendants stop making timely and complete costsharing reduction payments.”