Cost-Sharing Reduction Payments Hang in the Balance May 22, 2017 White House to Pay Insurers While Obamacare Case Kept on Ice – CNBC CNBC interviewed Manatt’s Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, a managing director with Manatt Health, for an article about the potential fate of cost-sharing reductions amidst a lawsuit challenging their legality. If the executive branch had decided to drop its defense of the case—which would then let stand a federal judge's decision that the payments to insurers were illegal—insurers were expected to request even higher premium rates for ACA health plans next year than they otherwise would have. However, according to the publication, the delay in resolving the case will continue uncertainty over the fate of the cost-sharing subsidies, which also could cause insurers to price plans higher to reflect the chance the money might go away by next year. "If the administration seeks a delay on Monday, presumably they would continue to pay the cost-sharing reductions, but they don't have to actively defend the lawsuit in the short term," said Brooks-LaSure. Read the article here.
