Without Congressional approval, the president will cough-up money to debt ridden health insurers through a slush fund account. This is in the Washington Post.
Reminder: Congress is the approver of the money for the United States.
The Obama administration is maneuvering to pay health insurers billions of dollars the government owes under the Affordable Care Act, through a move that could circumvent Congress and help shore up the president’s signature legislative achievement before he leaves office.
The payments most likely would draw from an obscure Treasury Department fund intended to cover federal legal claims, the executives and lawyers said. This approach would get around a recent congressional ban on the use of Health and Human Services money to pay the insurers.
This was done to ARTIFICIALLY create a market and to manipulate that market.
The money in question involves one of three strategies to help coax insurers into the marketplaces by promising to cushion them from unexpectedly high expenses for their new customers. This particular strategy, known as “risk corridors,” was for the marketplaces’ first three years, when it was unclear how many people would sign up and how much medical care they would use.
So in effect, the Health Insurance Companies are suing for money they THINK is owed to them. You know, the ones who went along on this venture with a market coming to them…supposedly.
One health plan executive, whose attorney has spoken with Justice officials, said the department is trying to reach an agreement with suing insurers in the next two weeks on what percentage of the remaining $2.5 billion would be paid out. At that point, the same offer would be made to every other insurer owed money. A judge would need to approve the arrangement, according to the executive, who spoke about the pending litigation on the condition of anonymity.
Apparently the Lame Stream Media have forgotten that this was all predicted by experts in the financially world, and it has come to be true. (Big Surprise!!/sarcasm)
It’s another indication of the failure of ACA. It costs too much, and delivers (poorly) too little. Bad for citizens, bad for the national budget, and good for self-serving politicians. Nice going… Odumbo!