So who has the better lawyers and the better track record?
“But as the Trump administration argues in legal filings that Congress must pass a bill to make the subsidy payments,”
But the ACA was already the law of the land. Why is another law necessary?
If I remember correctly, the drafters of the ACA neglected to include a clause that “Congress shall annually appropriate a sum sufficient to pay the CSRs” (or something similar).It was a mistake, the Republicans seized on it while Obama was in office, of course refused to fix it, but now some of them are trying to find their way out of a mess of their own creation for simply being obstinate dickheads.
Thanks for filling me in. I didn’t remember that - obviously.
In other words, they didn’t say “Mother May I” in one single part of the legislation, even though the intent was perfectly clear.
Moreover, the law, even if imperfectly drafted, mandates that the payments be made. That law passed both houses, was duly signed by Obama, hence is law and binding on the federal government. And in upholding the mandate to purchase health insurance, the Supreme Court majority also stated that the argument focused on the glitch regarding annual appropriations to cover CSRs was weak, since the law was obviously not intended to last for only a single year.
“No matter how compelling the rationale, neither the Executive nor the Judiciary has the authority to expend taxpayer dollars, including billions of dollars in annual cost-sharing reduction payments under the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), if Congress has not appropriated those funds,” the Justice Department said
Instead, the state insurance regulators have the authority, when they approve insurance-company requests for premium increases, to force Congress to appropriate sufficient funds to reimburse the insurance companies in the form of higher premium subsidies.
I’m not sure how contract law intersects with Constitutional questions, but, from a contract perspective, it seems to me that the law forms one with the insurance companies (depending on the paperwork that bridges from the legislation to the agreements the insurance companies sign). I don’t think that Congress can sidestep contractural obligations simply by refusing to make appropriations for them. Now that the payments to insurers have stopped, they would have standing to sue for damages.
The road to hell is paved with loopholes exploited by lawyers who have no interest in good intentions…
National treasure and Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik raises an interesting question: If the CSR payments are illegal as America’s inflamed sphincter claims, why did Dotard make them every month since he’s been in orifice, er, in office through September?
(Sorry about writing orifice. But when a guy has his head that far up his ass I think you’ll agree my confusion was understandable.)
As I understand it, they already when this route with the risk corridor money that Ted Cruz defunded. (He was able to revoke the appropriation but not change the underlying law.) The companies that managed to stay in business long enough for their lawsuits to be decided got their hundreds of millions of dollars plus costs.
But it’s a long, expensive, uncertain process, and any insurance company that can just crank up premiums instead is going to.
I loath Trump he is correct that Congress must properly appropriate what the insurers are legally owed!
Section 1402 of the PPACA
METHODS FOR REDUCING COST-SHARING.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—An issuer of a qualified health plan
making reductions under this subsection shall notify the
Secretary of such reductions and the Secretary shall make
periodic and timely payments to the issuer equal to the
value of the reductions.
If we had a functioning Republican Congress they would do what they do for all the other laws that do not have explicit appropriation rules in the law, which is appropriate the funds for them at the start on the fiscal year in an omnibus.
The Republican Congress can be penny wise and pound foolish and pay the insurers what they are legally owned now, or they can pay it later plus lawyer fees when the insurers win their slam dunk civil lawsuit for breach of contract given that the above text in the PPACA could not be any clearer.
BINGO!
Insurers are going to be paid.
"Are you a good witch, or a bad witch? " asked Glinda the witch of for-profit health insurance.
“Good, short-term, ma’am. But you need to adjust your investment portfolio to prepare for single-payer. I’d try to sell the condo in Boca, not that climate change is a problem in a free society.”
He really does have soft delicate little hands that have never done an honest day’s work.
Shorter Trump: Congress shouldnt do what they must do. If they do it, I will not sign it. Its all Obama’s fault.