President Trump Decides to Cut Off Obamacare Payments to Insurance Companies
U.S. President Donald Trump defended his Executive Order to cut off premium support subsidies in the Affordable Care Act early Friday and challenged Democratic lawmakers to return to the negotiating table as the two sides continue to spar over healthcare and tax reform.
Trump said late Thursday that the government would stop paying so-called 'cost-sharing reduction subsidies', or payments to insurance companies that help lower-income families with co-pays and healthcare costs. The White House said the payments, a key plank of the Obamacare program, were an "unlawful bailout of insurance companies" and "yet another example of how the previous administration abused taxpayer dollars and skirted the law to prop up a broken system."
"The Department of Health and Human Services has concluded that there is no appropriation for cost-sharing reduction payments to insurance companies under Obamacare," the White House said in a statement late Thursday. "In light of this analysis, the Government cannot lawfully make the cost-sharing reduction payments."
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