Politico interviewed CAHC’s Joel White about the fight to fund ACA subsidies and why Republicans might be in favor of President Trump’s push to reimburse insurers for cost-sharing reductions, which insurers must give to low-income Obamacare consumers to pay down out-of-pocket costs like deductibles and co-pays.
The lack of funding for the payments is “driving up premiums for unsubsidized enrollees and increasing taxpayer costs,” GOP health strategist Joel White said in an email statement earlier this month.
White is referring to the tactic insurers and states have used to cover their costs, a workaround that exploited the subsidy structure of Obamacare. In almost all states, insurers dramatically increased premiums for one of their silver-tier health plans. Because the premium for that silver plan determines how much the government pays in subsidies, government costs rose.