HEALTHCARE/OBAMACARE(ACA)/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s reversals in the past week on maintaining Obamacare subsidies to insurers are sowing new confusion over what kind of health insurance will be available to consumers, and at what price, when enrollment for 2018 begins in two weeks.
Trump said last week his administration would stop paying billions of dollars in subsidies that help insurers give discounts to low-income households, one of several moves to dismantle the signature healthcare law of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.
Since then, Trump has alternately supported, and dismissed, an effort by Republican and Democratic senators that would reinstate the subsidies for two years, until a broader replacement to the 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, can be negotiated…
Trump, who promised during his election campaign to repeal and replace Obamacare, which he has called a ‘disaster,’ has said the subsidies amount to a bailout for insurance companies.
By law, health insurers must still offer the discounts on deductibles, co-pays and other out-of-pocket costs, even if the government stops reimbursing them. Insurers say they do not profit from the subsidies.”
-Caroline Humer, “Obamacare whiplash leaves states, insurers with dueling price plans,” Reuters, Oct. 20, 2017 03:03am