Close Close
Sign In
Newsletters
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
Podcast Center Video Center Webcasts Resource Center Events
About ThinkAdvisor Contact Us Advertise With Us Asset & Logo Licensing Sitemap Terms of Service Privacy Policy Copyright © 2024 ALM Global, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
ThinkAdvisor

Life Health > Health Insurance > Health Insurance

New York State AG Vows to Sue Trump Administration Over Loss of ACA Subsidy

By Josefa Velasquez

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman vowed to sue the Trump administration over the end of payments to insurers under the Affordable Care Act cost-sharing reduction subsidy program.

“I will not allow President [Donald] Trump to once again use New York families as political pawns in his dangerous, partisan campaign to eviscerate the Affordable Care Act at any cost,” Schneiderman said in a statement.

At a news conference Friday in New York City, Schneiderman announced that his office and officials from other states, including California, are filing a multistate lawsuit, calling Trump’s decision to end the cost-sharing reduction payments “cruel and unlawful.” Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy and Connecticut AG George Jepsen, also Democrats, are among those expected to join a lawsuit.

(Related: New York Fines Excellus $1M Over Birth Control Claim Denials)

The decision to end the payments to insurers, estimated at $7 billion this year, is the biggest blow to the Obama-era health law, which Republicans in Congress have unsuccessfully attempted to repeal over the last several months, as reported in sibling publication The National Law Journal.

The cost-sharing reduction payments fund the Essential Plan in the New York health insurance exchange, which provides subsidized, government-negotiated health insurance plans for roughly 700,000 New Yorkers. The loss of the funds could blow a $1 billion hole in the state budget, which is already dealing with a looming $4 billion budget deficit.

In a statement issued Friday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he would support a legal challenge to Trump’s decision to end the subsidies, which are payments the federal government makes to insurers to reduce premiums and other expenses for low-income individuals.

“Unable to move the repeal of the Affordable Care Act in Congress, President Trump is now attempting to administratively dismantle the ACA bit by bit,” Cuomo said. “His actions will slash benefits and raise premiums in many health plans by 20% next year according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, and it will single handedly destabilize insurance markets. With a swipe of a pen, President Trump puts the health of New Yorkers at risk.

—-Read Greenberg settles suit over AIG deals N.Y. calls fraudulent on ThinkAdvisor.


— Connect with ThinkAdvisor’s Life/Health channel on Facebook and Twitter.

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.