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Florida Residents Sign Up For Affordable Care Act On Deadline Day

Source: Joe Raedle / Getty

After threatening to do so for months, 45 has decided to stop paying critical subsidies that go to health insurers under the Affordable Care Act, with the Health and Human Services Department announcing late last night (October 12th) that the payments will stop immediately. According to News One,

The White House said the government can’t legally continue to pay the cost-sharing subsidies, which help lower co-pays and deductibles for people with lower incomes, because they don’t have formal authorization from Congress. Unless Congress intervenes to authorize the payments, experts say the move means that health insurance premiums will spike up next year by double digits, on top of increases that were already planned.

People who get tax credits to pay their premiums would be protected from paying those increases out of pocket, but taxpayers would end up paying more to subsidize the higher premiums for them. People who buy individual policies without any financial help from the government wouldn’t have that protection, and could face large premium increases.

The House and Senate Democratic leaders, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, released a joint statement calling Trump’s action a, quote, “spiteful act of vast, pointless sabotage leveled at working families and the middle class in every corner of America.” But House Speaker Paul Ryan praised the move as an affirmation that, quote, “the power of the purse belongs to Congress, not the executive branch.”

This is so wrong.  SMH

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