UPDATED: Trump freezes Obamacare payment program, leaving insurers scrambling

[applegrove]

AMANDA MICHELLE GOMEZ at Think Progress

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-might-end-obamacare-payment-program-rattling-insurers-ahead-of-key-market-decisions-0ae9d3c61c52/

"SNIP.......

The Trump administration is freezing a critical Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance payment program that discourages insurers from cherry picking healthier enrollees by compensating them for sicker ones.

The move could rattle insurance companies at the very moment when they’re deciding whether to continue selling ACA plans and setting premiums for 2019. It’s not immediately clear what this means for ACA enrollees, if anything.

The news comes after the Wall Street Journal reported they might suspend the program:

The suspension of some payouts under the program, known as risk adjustment, could come in the wake of a recent decision by a federal judge in New Mexico, who ruled that part of its implementation was flawed and hadn’t been adequately justified by federal regulators, people familiar with the plans said.

.......SNIP"

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. A legit, 2020 candidate would not be screwing his $$$ base like this.

I don't think Trump is seriously worried about 2020 at all. Or even mid-terms. He is pissing off a lot of serious Republican voter factions, including people who donate to state candidates.

I hear nothing from the Republican party expressing concern over this. It is actually too quiet.

[ooky]

6. He will blame the democrats and his tribe will believe hin.

[mr_lebowski]

2. So ... ONE JUDGE issues a half-assed ruling that something is flawed, so now like $13,000,000,000

is just NOT going to be paid out as promised by the Federal Government, to help cover the coverage for millions of Americans ... and that's ... just fine by these deep-pocketed insurance companies?

I mean, they're just 'scrambling'? Sure thing.

If they're not pitching a fit about this in the next few days, the fix is in, and they've been promised ACA is going away and that they can soon go back to their rapacious ways.

[Volaris]

4. Possible, but the short-sightedness on their part is stunning, if true.

Because the moment pre-existing conditions become a thing again, it should take oh about 1 cycle and we'll get majority vote on Public Option healthcare, if not outright single-payer (that's my read, anyway)

So yes keep fucking with it, guys, EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE I PROMISE.

[RussBLib]

3. Screw up trade with tariffs; screw up healthcare

The Chaos continues. SCOTUS pick, London trip, hang with Vlad, the jackass has energy alright.

[progree]

5. But reacting to a lower court decision in that way is a highly unusual move ...

Last edited Sun Jul 8, 2018, 11:47 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obamacare-sabotage-risk-adjustment_us_5b40e39ae4b09e4a8b2d96cb

The ACA’s risk adjustment system has been the target of federal litigation because some insurers said it treated their plans unfairly. In one of those cases, a federal judge in New Mexico ruled that the system is flawed a decision, the administration says, that means the payments must stop for now.

But reacting to a lower court decision in that way is a highly unusual move, Nicholas Bagley, a University of Michigan law professor, told HuffPost on Saturday although he cautioned that he hadn’t seen any actual filings, so he couldn’t be sure exactly what the administration was thinking or doing.

Administrations don’t typically concede so much, so soon in the face of district court decisions, Bagley said. “Otherwise, a lone judge could throw an entire agency’s work into disarray,” he added.


... Risk adjustment doesn’t always work that well in practice. A 2015 New England Journal of Medicine study found evidence that insurers were “using benefit design to dissuade sicker people from choosing their plans,” even with the ACA’s risk adjustment program in place.

...