President Donald Trump and House Republicans have decided not to blow up the Obamacare health insurance markets just yet. In a filing to a federal appeals court Monday, the Justice Department and lawyers representing House Republicans have requested another 90-day delay in the proceedings from a case challenging the legality of payments made to health insurers serving low-income customers. “The parties continue to discuss measures that would obviate the need for judicial determination of this appeal, including potential legislative action,” attorneys for both parties wrote to the appeals court.
Source: Trump Decides Not To Blow Up Obamacare — Yet | HuffPost
If the U.S. District Court of Appeals grants this request, the legal uncertainty over the reduced cost sharing subsidies for silver actuarial value (AV) plans sold in state health benefit exchanges would potentially continue for the rest of the summer. As the article notes, those subsidies could be cut off at any time by the Trump administration and an appeal in the case, House v. Price, dropped. That would leave intact a U.S. District Court ruling one year ago finding the subsidies cannot be allocated by the executive branch without congressional appropriation. Neither the Trump administration nor the current Congress are committed to keeping the exchange market functional and have little motivation to resolve the matter.
These circumstances will likely prompt plan issuers to increase plan year 2018 premium rates as a precaution as rate filings are due to state regulators in the next month since the Affordable Care Act would continue to require them to offer more generous coverage than standard 70 percent AV silver plans for households earning below 250 percent of federal poverty levels and purchasing though the exchanges. At least one plan issuer, Anthem, has indicated it would have to boost premiums by at least 20 percent to cover the potential loss of the CSR subsidies.
A second consecutive year of double digit premium increases could threaten the actuarial viability of the state non-group market risk pools since those eligible for little or no advance premium tax credit subsidies would likely flee the market. Particularly if the Trump administration doesn’t enforce the ACA’s individual mandate, making that option more appealing.
Some state regulators including California and most recently New Mexico have asked plan issuers to file two sets of premium rates, one assuming continuation of the subsidies and another without them.
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