Ali Meyer of the Washington Free Beacon details the latest evidence of the Affordable Care Act failing to live up to its name.
If the federal government fails to fund the Affordable Care Act’s cost-sharing subsidies, average premiums for the silver plan would have to rise by 19 percent, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report.
Cost-sharing subsidies were put in place by the Affordable Care Act to rein in the cost of out-of-pocket expenses for lower-income individuals by reimbursing insurers.
Two House committees, Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce, investigated the source of funding for the subsidies and said they were unconstitutional. They said the Obama administration was funding the program without a permanent appropriation from Congress and filed a lawsuit challenging the payments.
“With a legal appeal pending, the federal government and Congress are in a position to choose whether to continue reimbursing insurers for their cost,” Kaiser said.
If the government fails to make these payments, premiums will rise from a range of 9 percent in North Dakota to 27 percent in Mississippi.
