Washington, D.C. – According to new reporting, President Trump’s own Office of Management and Budget has found that restoring the cost-sharing reduction payments (CSRs) that Trump unilaterally canceled last fall would lower premiums 15-20%. Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse released the following statement in response:
“Donald Trump’s unilateral decision to end cost-sharing reduction payments triggered a massive and unnecessary increase in premiums. Now, Trump’s own Administration is admitting the damage that he caused. Once again, President Trump has slipped on a banana peel he threw on the floor himself. But Trump’s CSR sabotage was only the first strike in a deluge of Administration actions to damage and destabilize the health markets and drive up costs, and addressing the CSR issue alone is not sufficient to mitigate the harm ensuring Trump Administration sabotage actions are now set to drive up premiums by double digits again next year. That’s why any stabilization package worth its weight must match the scope of the damage inflicted by Trump and his Administration.”
OMB: Funding insurer subsidies will lower ACA premiums 15-20%
Axios // Caitlin Owens and Jonathan Swan // March 6, 2018
Funding the Affordable Care Act’s cost-sharing subsidies would lower premiums by 15-20%, according to an analysis being circulated around congressional offices from the Office of Management and Budget. OMB says those subsidies would be more cost-effective than a new reinsurance program.
Why it matters:
Reinsurance has been gaining steam on Capitol Hill, and Sen. Susan Collins is still owed a vote on a reinsurance bill. But the White House budget office is saying Congress could get a better deal by restoring a funding stream that President Trump cut off last year.
The numbers:
- President Trump’s decision to quit making the cost-sharing payments this year caused premiums to rise by 15-20%, the analysis says, and funding them next year would undo that increase.
- It also says that for every $1 billion spent on a reinsurance program — which would compensate insurers for their most expensive claims — individual market premiums would decrease by only 1%.
Key quote:
“We project funding CSRs would have a greater impact on reducing premiums than any of the reinsurance funding levels that have been proposed, and would have more bang for the buck in terms of Federal spending.”