House Chair: Obamacare Subsidies Must Continue To Avoid Collapse Amid Repeal

[DonViejo]

Source: Talking Points Memo



By TIERNEY SNEED Published JANUARY 16, 2017, 10:47 AM EDT

A key House Republican in the effort to repeal Obamacare said that the law's subsidies for insurers which are currently the target of a GOP lawsuit will continue in the so-called transition period after the Affordable Care Act of is repealed. The acknowledgement that the subsidies will need to be maintained is yet another signal that key Republicans on the Hill are prepared to prop up Obamacare in the short term while they work on an eventual replacement plan

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), who heads one of the committees that will be writing the legislation to repeal Obamacare, told Politico last week that he wants to see the subsidy program funded “one way or another."

“If you don’t, the plans have the ability to cancel midyear, and we said we wouldn’t pull the rug out from under people — and we shouldn’t,” he said, according to the report published Friday evening.

The subsidies are known as a cost-sharing reduction payments, and they help insurers keep out-of-pocket costs down for low-income consumers, as is required by the Affordable Care Act. House Republicans sued the Obama administration in 2014 for using Treasury Department funds to make the payments, as they had not been appropriated by Congress. A federal judge last May ruled in favor of the Republicans, but after the case was appealed, its proceedings were paused until after President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated.

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/greg-walden-insurer-subsidies

[Ruby the Liberal]

1. So the priority is to protect industry profits

rather than blocking the industry from cancelling contracts mid year.

[modrepub]

3. Maybe It's Acknowledging

that pulling the plug on the ACA is going to start triggering layoffs in the healthcare industry. It's bad that people are going to loose coverage but this also feeds back into the economy on the jobs side. In rural areas this could be especially bad since in these areas healthcare is a major employer. Once these layoffs start it's going to be hard to offset them. Think of the multiplier effect here. Hospitals/clinics layoff people, medical supply companies loose business, insurance companies layoff claims officials, call centers start cutting people, et cetera. Not only you loose tax revenue you owe these people unemployment also. IMHO the reason the recovery has been so anemic the last year or so is the hit the energy industry suffered when oil/gas/coal prices collapsed.

[Ruby the Liberal]

4. No question

I applaud any port in the storm on this. As distasteful as it is to witness HOW they get there, as long as they wake the hell up and decide not to go through with this, I'm good.

I'll still bitch about their priorities though.

[modrepub]

5. I hear ya

but these people are into inflicting pain on other people, especially if they think they are poor/Democrates. This whole election was about settling scores for not showing proper respect. It has to be pointed out as often as possible that they are actually pointing a loaded gun at their head so to speak before there is any hope they will realize this was an incredibly dumb idea.

[cstanleytech]

7. I suspect its more along the lines off trying not to piss off any big $$$ donors and potential

future lobbyist employers.

[hollowdweller]

13. In WV #1 employer changed from Wal Mart to WVU Medicine

ACA is a jobs program too.

[hibbing]

2. Nice try ahole n/t

[not fooled]

6. Once again...

...these duplicitous assholes disgust me. Obamacare is in most respects THEIR PLAN..it's Heritagecare, based on a private insurance model dreamed up in that bastion of "free market" ideology.

Just because the Black guy got it enacted...their heads continue to explode. Oh, and probably because he dared to enact a modest tax on incomes over 200K to help fund care for low income Americans...and a few other improvements such as helping protect Medicare.

What they really want is to just let the proles die in the streets. C'mon, guys, just admit it.

[DeminPennswoods]

8. ACA is like Jenga

remove one piece and the whole tower falls down.

[maxrandb]

11. I have a tenent

who works construction and is constantly going from job to job. He has 3 kids and a wife that doesn't work. One of his kids is diabetic. Every month it's a "waiting game" to see if we get the rent, but he usually comes up with it on time.

He was saying how the ACA really helped, especially with the meds and appointments for his diabetic child.

HE VOTED FOR TRUMP!!!

It tool all of my moral courage not to evict him

[hollowdweller]

14. That' sick

But more common than you'd think.

[maxrandb]

10. So they pledge to keep

that which they were suing to drop???

I'd give my left testicle for a decent free press

[drm604]

12. Here's what may happen.

They might make some minor changes, then start calling it Republicare, or Trumpcare (or Pencecare) and then celebrate that they "repealed and replaced", and their base will love it.

[Bengus81]

15. And everyone is supposed to assume...

That what they come out with will be affordable?? BS,those subsidies need to go away so they can prop up a HUGE tax cut for the rich.

[maxrandb]

18. Why?

Since when have the Retrumplicans ever cared about paying for a tax cut?

[TexasBushwhacker]

17. Or they could just leave it all in place

until they come up with something better, which they've already had 6 years to work on.

[Wounded Bear]

19. So they're going to eliminate it, but not defund it?

[still_one]

20. Just the Repeal and Delay garbage could very likely cause it to collapse, because insurance

companies would pull out of the marketplace because of the uncertainty