WASHINGTON: The Trump administration said Saturday it’s freezing payments under an “Obamacare” program that protects insurers with sicker patients from financial losses, a move expected to add to premium increases next year.
At stake are billions in payments to insurers with sicker customers.
In a weekend announcement, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the administration is acting because of conflicting court ruling in lawsuits filed by some smaller insurers who question whether they are being fairly treated under the program.
The so-called “risk adjustment” program takes payments from insurers with healthier customers and redistributes that money to companies with sicker enrollees. Payments for 2017 are $10.4 billion. No taxpayer subsidies are involved.
The idea behind the program is to remove the financial incentive for insurers to “cherry pick” healthier customers. The government uses a similar approach with Medicare private insurance plans and the Medicare prescription drug benefit.
Major insurer groups said Saturday the administration’s action interferes with a program that’s working well.
The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, whose members are a mainstay of Affordable Care Act coverage said it was “extremely disappointed” with the administration’s action.
The Trump administration’s move “will significantly increase 2019 premiums for millions of individuals and small business owners and could result in far fewer health plan choices,” association president Scott Serota said in a statement. “It will undermine Americans’ access to affordable coverage, particularly those who need medical care the most.”
Serota noted that the payments are required by law, and said he believes the administration has the legal authority to continue making them despite the court cases. He warned of “turmoil” as insurers finalize their rates for 2019.
America’s Health Insurance Plans, the main health insurance industry trade group, said in a statement that it is “very discouraged” by the Trump administration’s decision to freeze payments.
“Costs for taxpayers will rise as the federal government spends more on premium subsidies,” the group said.
Rumors that the Trump administration would freeze payments were circulating late last week. But the Saturday announcement via email was unusual for such a major step.
The administration argued in its announcement that its hands were tied by conflicting court rulings in New Mexico and Massachusetts.
Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Seema Verma said the Trump administration was disappointed by a New Mexico court ruling that questioned the workings of the risk program for insurers.
The administration “has asked the court to reconsider its ruling, and hopes for a prompt resolution that allows (the government) to prevent more adverse impacts on Americans who receive their insurance in the individual and small group markets,” she said.
More than 10 million people currently buy individual health insurance plans through HealthCare.gov and state insurance marketplaces. The vast majority of those customers receive taxpayer subsidies under the Obama-era health law and would be shielded from premium increases next year.
The brunt of higher prices would fall on solid middle-class consumers who are not eligible for the income-based subsidies. Many of those are self-employed people and small business owners, generally seen as a Republican constituency.
The latest “Obamacare” flare-up does not affect most people with employer coverage.
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Trump administration takes another swipe at ‘Obamacare’
Trump administration takes another swipe at ‘Obamacare’
- The program takes payments from insurers with healthier customers and redistributes the money to companies with sicker enrollees
- The idea is to remove the financial incentive for insurers to "cherry-pick" healthier customers
Greece backs coast guard after latest deadly migrant crash
ATHENS: The Greek government has firmly backed its coast guard, insisting it is “not a welcoming committee” as questions grow over a collision in the Aegean Sea this week that killed 15 asylum seekers.
The deadly crash occurred late Tuesday when the high-speed boat the migrants were traveling in collided with a coast guard patrol vessel off the Greek island of Chios, not far from the Turkish coast.
Four women were among the dead, while 24 survivors have been admitted to hospital in Chios.
Rights groups and international media have repeatedly accused Greece of illegally forcing would-be asylum seekers back into Turkish waters, backing their claims with video and witness testimonies.
Greek media and opposition parties have questioned the details of Tuesday’s crash, and the country’s ombudsman has called for “an impartial and thorough investigation,” stressing that the priority should always be “the protection of human life.”
On Thursday, the government said it fully backed the maritime agency.
“We have full confidence in the coast guard and we support them,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told reporters.
Conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he was expecting “a full investigation” into the crash.
In the meantime, he argued that preliminary details showed that “essentially, our coast guard ship was rammed by a much smaller boat.”
“This is a situation that happens quite frequently in the Aegean,” he told Foreign Policy, arguing that smugglers were endangering migrants’ lives.
Had Greek authorities not been present, more people would probably have died, he alleged.
The coast guard was “not a welcoming committee” for people seeking asylum in the European Union, he told the magazine.
- Questions -
Following the crash the coast guard said the pilot of the migrant boat had ignored signals and “made a U-turn maneuver” before colliding with the Greek patrol boat.
“Under the force of the impact, the speedboat capsized and then sank, throwing everyone on board into the sea,” the agency said.
So far, none of the hospitalized survivors have testified directly.
One of them, a 31-year-old Moroccan man, was to be questioned by police as a possible smuggler.
Several Greek media outlets, including To Vima and private TV channel Mega, have reported the victims died of severe head injuries.
Some news organizations have questioned why the patrol boat’s thermal camera was not switched on.
“The captain of the patrol boat judged it unnecessary because the migrants’ speedboat had already been detected by a camera on shore and a spotlight,” government spokesman Marinakis said.
The port police released photos of the coast guard patrol vessel showing minor damage, but no images of the asylum seekers’ boat.
- ‘Obvious distress’ -
Abusive pushbacks have become the “norm” in Greece, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in 2023.
The crash off Chios was “not an isolated incident,” the Refugee Support Aegean charity said this week.
“Based on the available information and the initial announcement of the Hellenic Coast Guard, it appears that, instead of a search and rescue operation, an interception operation was deployed from the outset,” RSA said in a statement.
“This occurred while the refugees’ boat was in obvious distress, was overcrowded and was located at a short distance from the Greek coast,” the statement added.
It is far from the first time that international organizations have pointed the finger at Greece over how it treats migrant boats.
Eighteen of its coast guard members are being prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter due to negligence in the sinking of the trawler Adriana in June 2023.
The United Nations said around 750 people died in that tragedy — one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean in the past decade.
In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Greece for its responsibility in the capsizing of a migrant boat off the islet of Farmakonisi in the Aegean Sea.
Eleven people died, including eight children.
The deadly crash occurred late Tuesday when the high-speed boat the migrants were traveling in collided with a coast guard patrol vessel off the Greek island of Chios, not far from the Turkish coast.
Four women were among the dead, while 24 survivors have been admitted to hospital in Chios.
Rights groups and international media have repeatedly accused Greece of illegally forcing would-be asylum seekers back into Turkish waters, backing their claims with video and witness testimonies.
Greek media and opposition parties have questioned the details of Tuesday’s crash, and the country’s ombudsman has called for “an impartial and thorough investigation,” stressing that the priority should always be “the protection of human life.”
On Thursday, the government said it fully backed the maritime agency.
“We have full confidence in the coast guard and we support them,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told reporters.
Conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he was expecting “a full investigation” into the crash.
In the meantime, he argued that preliminary details showed that “essentially, our coast guard ship was rammed by a much smaller boat.”
“This is a situation that happens quite frequently in the Aegean,” he told Foreign Policy, arguing that smugglers were endangering migrants’ lives.
Had Greek authorities not been present, more people would probably have died, he alleged.
The coast guard was “not a welcoming committee” for people seeking asylum in the European Union, he told the magazine.
- Questions -
Following the crash the coast guard said the pilot of the migrant boat had ignored signals and “made a U-turn maneuver” before colliding with the Greek patrol boat.
“Under the force of the impact, the speedboat capsized and then sank, throwing everyone on board into the sea,” the agency said.
So far, none of the hospitalized survivors have testified directly.
One of them, a 31-year-old Moroccan man, was to be questioned by police as a possible smuggler.
Several Greek media outlets, including To Vima and private TV channel Mega, have reported the victims died of severe head injuries.
Some news organizations have questioned why the patrol boat’s thermal camera was not switched on.
“The captain of the patrol boat judged it unnecessary because the migrants’ speedboat had already been detected by a camera on shore and a spotlight,” government spokesman Marinakis said.
The port police released photos of the coast guard patrol vessel showing minor damage, but no images of the asylum seekers’ boat.
- ‘Obvious distress’ -
Abusive pushbacks have become the “norm” in Greece, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in 2023.
The crash off Chios was “not an isolated incident,” the Refugee Support Aegean charity said this week.
“Based on the available information and the initial announcement of the Hellenic Coast Guard, it appears that, instead of a search and rescue operation, an interception operation was deployed from the outset,” RSA said in a statement.
“This occurred while the refugees’ boat was in obvious distress, was overcrowded and was located at a short distance from the Greek coast,” the statement added.
It is far from the first time that international organizations have pointed the finger at Greece over how it treats migrant boats.
Eighteen of its coast guard members are being prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter due to negligence in the sinking of the trawler Adriana in June 2023.
The United Nations said around 750 people died in that tragedy — one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean in the past decade.
In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Greece for its responsibility in the capsizing of a migrant boat off the islet of Farmakonisi in the Aegean Sea.
Eleven people died, including eight children.
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