Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
State AGs Ask For Emergency Court Order To Keep Trump From Cutting Off Insurer Subsidies
Top government lawyers representing 19 U.S. states on Wednesday asked a federal judge in California to force the administration of President Donald Trump to make health care subsidy payments that Trump abruptly cut off last week. The monthly payments would normally be scheduled to go out Friday. The states, led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, asked a judge in San Francisco for an emergency court order by 4 p.m. Thursday requiring they be paid on time. (Cooper, 10/18)
California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra asked a federal court Wednesday to issue an emergency temporary restraining order to block the Trump administration from cutting off cost-sharing subsidies that help reduce the price of healthcare for millions of Americans. A week after California and 17 other states filed a lawsuit challenging the decision on its merits, the same attorneys general requested a restraining order to avoid immediate harm to millions of people who get subsidized healthcare through the Affordable Care Act, Becerra said. (McGreevy, 10/18)
[New York Attorney General Eric] Schneiderman, Becerra and the other attorneys general contend the ACA requires those payments be made, even though a U.S. judge in Washington disagreed in a 2016 decision that is currently under appeal. Immediate elimination of the payments would inflict multimillion-dollar losses on carriers and force them to raise premiums, forcing people to go without coverage, according to the AGs. The latest round of payments are to be made this week. (Harris, 10/18)
鈥淒onald Trump doesn鈥檛 get to pick and choose which laws to follow,鈥 California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) said in a statement. 鈥淔or nearly a year, Trump has submitted those payments. So the question now has to be: is Donald Trump correct today or was he breaking the law?鈥 (Weixel, 10/18)
惭别补苍飞丑颈濒别听鈥
A bipartisan group of 10 governors is calling on Congress to vote on a deal to stabilize ObamaCare鈥檚 insurance markets. 鈥淲e urge Congress to quickly pass legislation to stabilize our private health insurance markets and make quality health insurance more available and affordable,鈥 the governors wrote Wednesday in a letter to House and Senate leaders from both parties. (Roubein, 10/18)