Obamacare payments declared illegal

The White House announced late Thursday that the administration has concluded it can no longer legally make critical Obamacare “cost-sharing” payments, dealing another blow to the struggling 2010 health law.

The payments had specifically been denied by Congress but President Obama had made them anyway, drawing a rebuke from a court who said he was overstepping his powers. The case has raged for months, and both the Obama and Trump administrations had continued making payments — until now.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, in a statement, said the Justice Department has concluded the judge’s ruling is correct, and there is no valid legal ability to make the payments.

“The bailout of insurance companies through these unlawful payments is yet another example of how the previous administration abused taxpayer dollars and skirted the law to prop up a broken system,” Mrs. Sanders said. “Congress needs to repeal and replace the disastrous Obamacare law and provide real relief to the American people.”

The statement doesn’t explicitly say Mr. Trump won’t make the payments anymore, but given the administration’s legal argument that appears likely.

Read more at The Washington Times