Trump kills key Obamacare subsidies

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump announced late Thursday he plans to quit making cost-sharing reduction payments to subsidize Obamacare. The payments are worth about $7 billion this year. Since passing the Affordable Care Act, the White House made the payments to insurers to reimburse them for discounted premiums. Insurers must offer discounted Obamacare plans under the law, and the subsidy payments helped offset insurers’ costs for expanding access to new customers. But Congress never appropriated funds for the payments, and the Department of Justice has determined that makes them illegal. “In light of this analysis, the government cannot lawfully make the cost-sharing reduction payments,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. Trump threatened to cut off the payments for months, labeling them “bailouts” for big insurers. “The Democrats ObamaCare is imploding,” he tweeted Friday morning. “Massive subsidy payments to their pet insurance companies has stopped. Dems should call me to fix!” Without the payments, most expect insurers to raise prices on their plans to offset costs. Two Democratic state attorneys general—Xavier Becerra of California and Eric Schneiderman of New York—plan to sue the Trump administration to keep the subsidies coming.