- Trump Administration Pays June Obamacare Subsidies to Insurers The Hill by Jessie Hellmann—The Trump administration has made critical Obamacare subsidy payments to insurers for the month of June but won't provide any certainty about whether they'll continue in the future. The payments, known as cost-sharing reductions, reimburse insurers for providing discounts to low-income customers. Insurers have been threatening to raise premiums—or leave the Obamacare markets—if they don't receive certainty about the payments from Congress or the White House. But the Trump administration continues to say they have not made a decision about future payments.
- Insurers Make Obamacare Deadline Decisions but Can Still Drop Out USA Today by Jayne O'Donnell, Holly Fletcher, and Frank Gluck—The Trump administration has refused to commit to reimburse insurers for the subsidies about 7 million consumers get to defray the costs of deductibles and other cost-sharing. It is also not clear that it will enforce the ACA-mandated tax penalty for those who don't have health insurance. Without that assurance, insurers fear they won't get enough healthy people to sign up to offset the cost of insuring the sick. Actuaries at the health consulting firm Oliver Wyman estimated last week that two-thirds of the rate increases in 2018 are due to this uncertainty, while ACA supporters including Charles Gaba of ACASignups.net say it's a major reason for the insurer exits. Hilferty says Democrats share some of the blame.
- Government Health Insurance Markets Holding Up—Barely Associated Press by Tom Murphy—Enough insurers are planning to sell coverage on the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges next year to keep them working—if only barely— in most parts of the country. Competition in many markets has dwindled to one insurer—or none in some cases—and another round of steep price hikes is expected to squeeze consumers who don't receive big income-based tax credits to help pay their bill. "What we're seeing is a deterioration in these markets, but the markets haven't imploded, they haven't gone into a rapid downward decline," said Dan Mendelson, president of the consulting firm Avalere.