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| President Trump smiles after signing an Executive Order to make it easier for Americans to buy bare-bone health insurance plans and circumvent Obamacare rules. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque |
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - President Donald Trump will stop payments worth billions of dollars
to health insurers to subsidize low-income Americans, the White House said on
Thursday, a move health insurers have warned will cause chaos in insurance
markets and a spike in premiums.
The move to undermine
President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, officially called the
Affordable Care Act, drew criticism from Democrats and the threat of a lawsuit
from state attorneys general.
Trump has made the payments, guaranteed to insurers
under Obamacare to help lower out-of-pocket medical expenses for low-income
consumers, each month since taking office in January. But he has repeatedly
threatened to cut them off and disparaged them as a “bailout” for insurance
companies.
The White House said late on
Thursday that it cannot lawfully pay the subsidies to health insurance
companies.
A White House statement said that based on guidance
from the Justice Department, “the Department of Health and Human Services has
concluded that there is no appropriation for cost-sharing reduction
payments to insurance companies under Obamacare.”
“In light of this
analysis, the Government cannot lawfully make the cost-sharing reduction
payments,” the statement said.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi derided the move in a joint statement, saying
Trump would single-handedly push American’s healthcare premiums higher.
“It is a spiteful act
of vast, pointless sabotage leveled at working families and the middle class in
every corner of America,” they said. “Make no mistake about it, Trump will try
to blame the Affordable Care Act, but this will fall on his back and he will
pay the price for it.”
New York Attorney General Eric T.
Schneiderman said in a statement he was prepared to lead other attorneys
general in a lawsuit.
“I will not allow
President Trump to once again use New York families as political pawns in his
dangerous, partisan campaign to eviscerate the Affordable Care Act at any
cost,” he wrote.
“This summer, the
courts granted our intervention to defend these vital subsidies and the
quality, affordable health care they ensure for millions of families across the
country. Our coalition of states stands ready to sue if President Trump cuts
them off.”
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