Insurers pushed back Thursday against a series of tweets from President Donald Trump that used cost-sharing subsidies as a cudgel against Democrats in Congress.
Trump tweeted on Wednesday evening: “Democrats are trying to bail out insurance companies from disastrous #ObamaCare, and Puerto Rico with your tax dollars. Sad!”
He continued to hammer Democrats on Thursday morning via social media. One of those three tweets asked: ” What’s more important? Rebuilding our military — or bailing out insurance companies? Ask the Democrats.”
Democrats have pushed for Congress to appropriate funds for cost-sharing reductions, which are are currently paid directly by HHS.
American Health Insurance Plans spokeswoman Kristine Grow said Thursday, “In spite of what is being tweeted or talked about, insurers make no profits on these CSR payments. That is a misunderstanding.”
She added: “It’s completely incorrect to think about this, or talk about this, as a bailout.”
The funds — expected to be $7 billion this year — essentially create a sliding scale of deductibles, co-pays and out-of-pocket maximums.
The fate of the cost-sharing reductions, or CSRs, is in doubt because although they are guaranteed in the ACA, Congress never appropriated the money to fund them. The administration has been paying them, and a federal judge ruled those payments were illegal. An appeal of that ruling has been on hold, and the Trump administration has not said whether it will abandon the appeal.
Trump has said if he cuts CSRs off in May, it would force Democrats to cooperate on an Obamacare replacement. Congressional Democrats began pushing to include CSR payments as part of compromise the entire federal government. Congress faces a Saturday deadline to pass a budget bill, or else there will be a partial shutdown of the federal government. Leadership expects to need Democratic votes to get a continuing resolution or budget passed.
House Majority Leader Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Wednesday that CSR payments would not go in the resolution, but shortly afterward, the administration said the payments would continue.
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that with that announcement, the Democrats would no longer insist on including the payments.
Grow, however, noted the Trump administration didn’t make a long-term promise. All it did was walk back the president’s earlier threats to cut off payments, she said.
A coalition that includes AHIP and other business groups, including the American Hospital Association and the Chamber of Commerce, continue to press Congress to appropriate money for this aspect of the ACA.
The coalition ran ads Thursday in publications that circulate on Capitol Hill reminding representatives that 70% of voters — and 68% of moderate-income conservatives — want the government to help low-income people with deductibles and co-pays.
If Congress appropriates the money, the House GOP lawsuit will become moot, because the core issue in the lawsuit is whether the administration can make an end run around Congress to fund CSRs.
“Without that clarity and that certainty, it will destabilize the [ACA] market,” Grow said.