Subcommittee considers legality of ACA’s risk corridor program

A congressional panel discussed legislation on Monday that would prevent potential insurance company bailouts under the Affordable Care Act through the risk corridor program.

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health considered bills introduced by Reps. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) that would prevent inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars through the risk corridor program, according to a press release.

The subcommittee also discussed the legality of any payments made to insurance companies through the risk corridor program to potentially cover ACA-related losses.

“There are two questions at work,” Lance said. “Does the law allow the administration to cover insurance company loses, and are taxpayers going to have to foot the bill? Taxpayers need to be protected from more bailouts, and we need to ensure that the administration is following the letter of the law.”

Cassidy said individuals are paying more out-of-pocket healthcare costs while tax dollars are being used to prop-up ACA exchanges.

“Only Congress can appropriate funding for this,” Cassidy said. “The Obama administration wishes to bypass constitutional restrictions and give hard working taxpayers’ money to insurance companies to bail out Obamacare. This is wrong and I oppose these bailouts.”

As written, the healthcare law does not authorize the use of taxpayer dollars to fund the risk corridor program.

“I would like to thank Mr. Lance and Dr. Cassidy for introducing legislation that would protect our constituents from footing the bill for insurance company losses and stop the administration from circumventing the rule of law,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said.