The campaign to destroy Obamacare continues apace:
The Trump administration on Monday plans to ask a federal court for another 90-day delay in a lawsuit over Obamacare insurance subsidies, according to two administration sources, leaving the future of the health care marketplaces in limbo through late August. The suit, House v. Tom Price, centers on Obamacare’s cost-sharing program, which reimburses health insurers to help low-income people make co-payments at the doctor or hospital.
This is the suit filed by the House against Obamacare’s CSR subsidies. The delay means insurers won’t get assurance one way or the other about the fate of these subsidies, which in turn means they have to assume they’re going away. Anything else would be irresponsible.
And that means insurers have to raise premiums substantially to make up for the potential loss of CSR payments. The Obamacare market could be stabilized easily by continuing them, but that’s not what Trump wants. He wants Obamacare to fail without his fingerprints all over it, and this is his best try. Premiums will almost certainly rise 20-25 percent this year thanks to uncertainty about the CSR payments, and that will contribute to a narrative that Obamacare is imploding. Republicans are betting that no one will connect it to their lawsuit, and that might be a good bet.
Unless, of course, Democrats and the media make it crystal clear what’s going on here. Remember: this won’t affect poor people much because their premiums are capped. But it will affect middle-class people who don’t qualify for Obamacare tax credits. They’re going to see their premiums spike up yet again, and Democrats need to make it clear just whose fault that it.
