Republican lawmakers are reintroducing legislation to repeal ObamaCare's risk corridors, a temporary program intended to serve as a safety net for insurers entering the new marketplaces.

The bill from Sen. Marco Rubio Marco Antonio RubioFlorida senators pushing to keep Daylight Savings Time during pandemic Hillicon Valley: DOJ indicts Chinese, Malaysian hackers accused of targeting over 100 organizations | GOP senators raise concerns over Oracle-TikTok deal | QAnon awareness jumps in new poll Intelligence chief says Congress will get some in-person election security briefings MORE (R-Fla.) and Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), put forward again on Thursday, would eliminate risk corridors on the assumption that taxpayer money would flow to insurers under the program.

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While this is a possibility, experts say risk corridors are primarily designed to shift money from insurance companies that fare better in 2014, 2015 and 2016 to those that do worse.

Supporters of the program, including the trade group America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), argue that eliminating it will raise premiums and reduce options for consumers on the marketplaces.

Rubio, meanwhile, called risk corridors a "bailout" for insurers in a statement.

"Taxpayers should not have to fund massive bailouts to protect the profits of the insurance companies that helped write ObamaCare, which is why I've been fighting for over a year to protect taxpayers from yet another bailout that puts them on the hook for Washington's mistakes," the Florida Republican said Thursday.

Repealing risk corridors pits Republicans against private health insurers that have traditionally been allies of the GOP.

AHIP criticized Republican lawmakers in December, after they included language designed to limit government payments to the program in the "cromnibus" funding bill.

"American budgets are already strained by healthcare costs, and this change will lead to higher premiums for consumers and make it more difficult to achieve affordability," said Clare Krusing, AHIP spokeswoman, on Dec. 10.

"Our focus should be on changes to the law that will lower costs — like repealing the health insurance tax — not those that drive premiums higher."