03/28/2024
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 CHARLOTTE – President Obama’s health care law suffered another failure Monday when Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina announced a 24 percent rate hike for Obamacare customers in North Carolina.

 

“President Obama should have named his health care law the ‘Shock and Awe Care Act,’ because that’s the annual reaction of hardworking American families as they face another year of steep cost increases,” said Congressman Robert Pittenger (NC-09).  “In addition, President Obama wants hardworking American taxpayers to subsidize insurance company losses.  We can’t afford another year of the un-Affordable Care Act.”

 

Obamacare’s “risk corridor” program was designed to subsidize insurance companies for Obamacare-related losses by imposing a government-mandated fee on profitable insurance companies.  Fees paid into the program fell woefully short of reimbursement requests, and now some insurance companies are suing for full reimbursement. 

 

Despite Congress twice passing laws to prevent taxpayer bailouts of insurance companies, the Obama Administration has signaled willingness to settle these claims and seek to bypass Congress as they attempt to use a backdoor method to cover insurance company losses with taxpayer money.

 

In September, Congressman Pittenger sent a warning letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell emphasizing the full commitment of Congress to stop any potential backdoor bailout for insurance companies that lost money through Obamacare.

 

Congressman Pittenger’s letter was co-signed by 45 Members of Congress, including 3 Committee Chairs and 22 Subcommittee Chairs.  Following Congressman Pittenger’s letter, Speaker Ryan announced last week the U.S. House of Representatives has filed an amicus brief in an existing risk corridor lawsuit which sets forth why insurance companies are not entitled to an Obamacare bailout, and explaining why the Obama Administration’s attempt to settle these claims with taxpayer dollars subverts both the law and U.S. Constitution. 

 

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