Congress' Avenue to Kill Obamacare — Stop Paying Subsidies

Republicans have another lever they can pull to kill Obamacare, CNN reports — cease funding the cost-sharing subsidies.

Those payments to insurance companies, projected to be $11 billion in 2018, help bring down costs of deductibles and co-pays for more than 7 million low-income people on the Obamacare exchanges, CNN reports.

Putting an end to those subsidies would likely be the final straw for insurance companies in 2018.

Taking that action isn't without discomfort or potential peril, CNN reported:

• It would require filing suit against Health and Human Services head Tom Price.
• It could leave millions of lawmakers' constituents uninsured in 2018.

Further, time is running short; insurers have just a few weeks to decide whether to remain in the exchanges for 2018.

"We're working with the Trump administration and evaluating the options in front of us," AshLee Strong, spokeswoman for Paul Ryan, told CNN.

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