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Ayotte Statement Regarding Report that Administration is Illegally Reimbursing Health Insurers

Statement

Date: Sept. 30, 2016
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Health Insurance Health and Health Care

Today, U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte released a statement regarding a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) that found the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is improperly reimbursing health insurance companies, rather than sending money to the Treasury, as required by law. In its analysis, the GAO determined that "HHS lacks authority to ignore the statute's directive" and that the administration's "prioritization of collections for payment to issuers over payments to the Treasury is not authorized."

"As insurers continue to withdraw from the ObamaCare health insurance exchanges, this troubling report is further evidence that the administration continues to show little regard for hardworking taxpayers and is going to great lengths to prop up its failed health care law. Each day it becomes more clear that instead of working across the aisle to broker true health care reform that lowers costs for consumers, the President and his Democrat allies in Congress rushed through a partisan, flawed law. On top of this recent revelation, over 11,000 Granite Staters recently learned they would have to select a new insurance carrier after one of the ObamaCare co-ops announced it would be leaving the state. The status quo is unacceptable, and we must do more to promote competition, increase consumer choice, and bring down health care costs for hardworking families."

Ayotte recently helped introduce the State Flexibility to Provide Affordable Health Options Act to allow eligible individuals to use the health care law's subsidies to purchase plans outside the ObamaCare exchanges.

At the beginning of September, Community Health Options announced it would stop offering plans on the New Hampshire health insurance exchange. The ACA established the Health Insurance Co-Op Program, and as of September 2016, 17 of the 23 co-ops have failed, potentially leaving taxpayers on the hook for more than $1 billion.


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