GOP lawmakers aim to limit ObamaCare insurer protection funds

by Ferdous Al-Faruque - 05/22/14 7:19 PM ET

A new bill proposed by two Republican lawmakers would ensure an ObamaCare program to temporarily protect insurers from losses only uses funds it collects.

Reps. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Leonard Lance (R-N.J.) say their bill H.R. 4406, also known as the Taxpayer Bailout Protection Act, will impose restrictions on Obamacare’s Temporary Risk Corridors Program by making sure it is budget neutral.

{mosads}”The Obama Administration is asking American taxpayers to pay for insurance companies’ deficits. The same insurance companies that supported Obamacare,” said Cassidy. “This is wrong and I will oppose this bailout.”

The Temporary Risk Corridors Program applies to individual and small group qualified health plans until 2016.

It was set up to distribute funds from insurers with healthier, less expensive consumers to those with sicker, more costly consumers in a bid to spread the cost of risk in the early stages of the new healthcare law.

Cassidy and Lance warn if the Temporary Risk Corridors Program costs more than it brings in, the Department of Health and Human Services is allowed to reallocate funds from other health programs to supplement payments to insurers. Their bill aims to prevent that from happening.