Marco Rubio Quietly Undermined Affordable Care Act

[Triana]

WASHINGTON — A little-noticed health care provision that Senator Marco Rubio of Florida slipped into a giant spending law last year has tangled up the Obama administration, sent tremors through health insurance markets and rattled confidence in the durability of President Obama’s signature health law.

So for all the Republican talk about dismantling the Affordable Care Act, one Republican presidential hopeful has actually done something toward achieving that goal.

Mr. Rubio’s efforts against the so-called risk corridor provision of the health law have hardly risen to the forefront of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, but his plan limiting how much the government can spend to protect insurance companies against financial losses has shown the effectiveness of quiet legislative sabotage.

The risk corridors were intended to help some insurance companies if they ended up with too many new sick people on their rolls and too little cash from premiums to cover their medical bills in the first three years under the health law. But because of Mr. Rubio’s efforts, the administration says it will pay only 13 percent of what insurance companies were expecting to receive this year. The payments were supposed to help insurers cope with the risks they assumed when they decided to participate in the law’s new insurance marketplaces.

Mr. Rubio’s talking point is bumper-sticker ready. The payments, he says, are “a taxpayer-funded bailout for insurance companies.” But without them, insurers say, many consumers will face higher premiums and may have to scramble for other coverage. Already, some insurers have shut down over the unexpected shortfall.

THE REST:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/us/politics/marco-rubio-obamacare-affordable-care-act.html

[ananda]

1. So Obama and the Dems didn't even notice or care?

Whatever happened to due diligence?

[Triana]

2. . . .

later in the article:

Like many other observers of the health law, the Obama administration initially failed to appreciate the impact of the Rubio restrictions. Kevin J. Counihan, the chief executive of the federal insurance marketplace, told state officials in July that money collected from insurance companies would be “sufficient to pay for all risk corridor payments.” More recently, the administration consoled insurers by telling them that it would make additional risk corridor payments from money collected in 2015 and 2016.

[Triana]

3. And meanwhile....the fucking hypocrite did this...

Marco Rubio defends $10k subsidy after Obamacare signup

Though a staunch Obamacare critic, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio has enrolled his family in one of its health plans and will accept a $10,000 federal subsidy that some fellow Republicans rejected as a “special deal.”

Rubio on Monday defended his decision to accept the annual subsidy, and said it wasn’t that special.

“It’s an [employer] contribution,” Rubio said. “It’s available to every employee of the federal government.”

Rubio pointed out that, as a member of Congress, he is required to enroll in an Affordable Care Act plan if he wants health insurance through his employer, the federal government.

But while Rubio’s position is technically correct — he is receiving a type of insurance contribution from his employer that is common in government and the private sector — his decision to accept the subsidy poses political risks for the 2016 GOP presidential hopeful.

Rubio’s decision has drawn fire from Democrats, who charge him with hypocrisy, and puts him at odds with some Republicans who refuse to accept the federal contribution money in a protest of the Affordable Care Act.

THE REST:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article1958567.html

[agnostic102]

4. rich politicans

turning down money? that ill ever be the day..