Judge sides with Trump on healthcare payments

A U.S. judge on Wednesday turned down a request from 18 states and the District of Columbia to force the Trump administration to resume paying Obamacare subsidies. President Donald Trump announced earlier this month he was stopping the payments, which he called insurance company bailouts. The White House said the government cannot legally continue paying them because Congress did not formally authorize them. Democratic state attorneys general sued, arguing that ending the subsidies would immediately harm low-income people. But U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, an appointee of President Barack Obama, said the states had devised workarounds for the lost subsidies that would give people even better healthcare options. Healthcare.gov posted previews of its 2018 plans Wednesday, and a study by Avalere Health found premiums for silver-level insurance, the most popular tier, are going up an average of 34 percent.