Trump's sabotage of Obamacare is going to cost us all

In the midst of an extremely busy healthcare-policy week—Trumpcare and the CBO, the Trump regime's decision to punt on cost-sharing reduction payments to insurers—there was some very bad Obamacare news. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina announced that it was going to hike premiums by 22.9 percent for 2018. They also announced they were doing it precisely because the Trump regime punted on the decision about those payments, and had no choice because of the uncertainty Trump's sabotage was creating. Greg Sargent followed up with the insurer. First, a reminder about those payments—the cost-sharing reductions. They're reimbursements to insurance companies which subsidized lower-income Obamacare customers to help pay deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses that would otherwise be unaffordable. Those payments are the subject of a pending lawsuit, brought by House Republicans in 2013, which neither the House nor the Trump regime wants to deal with. The result—turmoil, as Sargent details.

In an interview with me this morning, Brad Wilson, the president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield North Carolina, said flat out that the failure of the Trump administration and Congress to guarantee that these subsidies will continue is why rates are going to soar for hundreds of thousands of people in his state.

“The failure of the administration and the House to bring certainty and clarity by funding CSRs has caused our company to file a 22.9 percent premium increase, rather than one that is materially lower,” Wilson told me. “That will impact hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians.” The company says it has approximately half a million customers getting individual insurance via Obamacare.

“We filed a 22.9 rate increase for 2018 based on the assumption that the CSRs will not be in place,” Wilson also said. “The rate increase would be 8.8 percent if the CSRs were guaranteed for 2018. Because they are not, the rate is 22.9 percent.” […]

“The effect will be the same across the country,” Wilson predicted. “Rates will be materially higher if CSRs aren’t funded.” Indeed, a recent Kaiser Family Foundation study found that insurers would likely boost premiums on average nationally by 19 percent on some plans to compensate for it if the CSRs are halted.

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