Fed's reject Baker's health subsidy workaround plan
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The Baker Administration's plan for setting up a special fund to help stabilize the individual health insurance market was shot down by the federal government Tuesday.
The Baker administration's request to set up a special fund to help consumers and stabilize the insurance market -- an ask that gained significance after the White House announced it would stop paying subsidies to insurers -- was shot down Tuesday by federal officials.
State health officials submitted their request on Sept. 8, seeking authority to waive the receipt of cost-sharing reduction payments -- insurer subsidies intended to benefit certain consumers under the Affordable Care Act -- and instead establish the fund to stabilize premiums.
The future of the CSR payments had been unclear for months as President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans sought to do away with elements of President Barack Obama's signature health care law. The White House on Oct. 12 announced it would end the payments Trump described as a bailout to insurers, saying they were unlawful because Congress had never appropriated the money.
The letter on Monday from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to Louis Gutierrez, executive director of the Massachusetts Health Connector, said the state's application "cannot be found to be complete" because of when it was submitted and therefore was denied.
"Given that the waiver was submitted less than two months prior to the beginning of the 2018 open enrollment period and, if the application were deemed complete, the Federal public comment period would not end until after the beginning of open enrollment, the Departments have determined that there is not sufficient time to implement the proposed waiver," Randy Pate, deputy administrator for CMS, wrote.
The Health Connector "will evaluate the prospects of filing a similar waiver for 2019 and continue to talk to federal partners about other proposals," Connector spokesman Jason Lefferts said in a statement.
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