Saturday, February 11, 2017

Insurer Scores A $200M Court Win After GOP Move To Block O'Care Payments

Tierney Sneed · Friday, February 10, 2017, 2:47 pm

An Oregon-based insurer scored a $214 million court victory this week in a case brought after congressional Republicans in 2014 hobbled the federal government's ability to fund an Affordable Care Act program.

The program, known as risk corridors payments, sought to blunt some of the risk insurers were taking on in the first three years of Obamacare's implementation. The program shifted money from insurers that over-performed on expectations to those that underperformed. However, GOP lawmakers inserted an amendment in must-pass legislation barring the government from drawing funding for the program from elsewhere in the Department of Health and Human Services to make up any shortfalls between the money collected from insurers and the money owed. (Florida's GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, pictured above, led the charge against the risk corridors program.)

As a result, insurers, on average, have received around 12 percent of the payments they have been owed.

Read more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/risk-corridors-to-lawsuit

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