Now that the individual mandate is gone, one of the nation’s largest insurers says Congress must act swiftly to shore up the Obamacare market.
"There's an urgent need to stabilize the market," Justine Handelman, a senior vice president at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, told reporters on Monday. “Without the mandate we think that the single most important thing that can help offset that loss is dedicated funding for reinsurance.”
Another Blue Cross official, Kris Haltmeyer, tells the Hill that a reinsurance bill would not only prevent further rate hikes, but could actually lead to a premium decrease. $1 billion a year for reinsurance would lead to premiums for silver level plans being 17 percent lower in 2019 than this year.
Absent any action, Blue Cross estimates that premiums will rise 10 percent next year.
The insurance lobby is supportive of a bill authored by Rep. Ryan Costello, R-Pa., which would authorize funding for reinsurance as well as cost-sharing reductions that help insurers discount the price of policies for low-income customers.
The GOP is split about what to do about the health law. The party’s most conservative wing does not want to support any measure to save a system set up by a law they detest. More moderate forces within the party, however, have called for stabilization measures.
Costello, for instance, represents a swing district that will likely be a top target for Democrats as they try to recapture the House this November. It is therefore likely in his political interests to be seen as working toward bipartisan solutions on the ACA, which has only become more popular since Republicans tried unsuccessfully to repeal it last year.
In an interview last week, Costello described his bill as an acknowledgement that the GOP would not pursue any major overhaul of the health care system this year.
Despite the repeal of the individual mandate, which was included in the end-of-year tax bill signed by Trump, enrollment in the ACA marketplace remains strong. More than 9 million people signed up for coverage during the last enrollment period.
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