Member Article

President Donald Trump announced that the federal government will halt payments known as cost share reduction (CSR) payments. The CSR payments amounted to approximately $7 billion this year, and served as a subsidy to enable lower-income Americans to afford health insurance coverage. While the statement from the White House did not establish a specific timetable for terminating these payments, a press release issued the same day by the Department of Health and Human Services announced that “CSR payments to issuers must stop, effective immediately.” President Trump’s decision to terminate these payments was based in large part on a memo from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Department of Justice which called into question the legality of the CSR payments. In the memo, Attorney General Sessions concluded that section 1324 of the Affordable Care Act “does not appropriate funds for the Affordable Care Act’s Cost-Sharing Reduction Program.”

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