President Trump announced that he will unilaterally end Obamacare cost-sharing subsidies that help millions of Americans pay their monthly premiums for health coverage. The move could make it nearly impossible for many Americans to continue receiving coverage. Just under six million Americans, or 57% of all people using the health insurance exchange, will now see their subsidy vanish overnight.
The President does have the legal authority to do this without Congressional approval, so there is little to nothing you can do if you are currently receiving a subsidy to help pay for your health insurance monthly premium outside of calling or writing your Representative and Senators to voice your displeasure with the Presidents move because if the people who represent you hear from you they will tend to listen.
What's ironic about this whole thing is that it appears this had the exact opposite effect of what President Trump had hoped for. More people now qualify for the subsidies, which are required by law to rise with the cost of a health insurance plan. So if a health insurance plan rises by 80% then the subsidy must rise along with it.
He may have inadvertently made it so more, not less, people are able to obtain health coverage.
J.K.Logic Wrote: Wait, I'm confused.. didn't you say he ended subsidies? Or did you mean that he ended some levels of subsidies, but now that costs rise, they qualify for different brackets or something?
I should have been more clear in my original post. The cost-sharing subsidies are mandated in the law, so President Trump can't unilaterally say they aren't lawful. What he did is say the government won't give payments to the insurance companies that are mandated by the law to provide those subsides.
After reading up on it more, it appears the insurance companies already planned for that and factored it into the prices of their plans. It's true there will be some winners and losers here, but the most vulnerable Americans will still be able to obtain modestly priced health insurance.
What's even more confusing is that the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit that focuses on healthcare policy, predicted President Trump's decision will wind up costing the government more because "eliminating cost-sharing reduction subsidies will save $10 billion in 2018, but the government will spend $12.3 billion because of the higher premiums the decision causes."