Sen. Lamar Alexander’s article includes several omissions and outright false statements about his bailout legislation. Here are the facts Alexander wouldn’t dare admit about his bill.

As Ronald Reagan might say, “There you go again.” Last week, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) published an op-ed in the Washington Examiner making claims about the Obamacare “stabilization” bill he developed with Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA).

The article tells a nice story about how conservatives should support the bill, but alas, one can consider it just that: A story. The article includes several material omissions and outright false statements about the legislation and its impact. Below are the facts and full context that Alexander wouldn’t dare admit about his bill.

Claim: “CBO [the Congressional Budget Office] said last month that making [cost-sharing reduction] payments would reduce Obamacare subsidies and therefore reduce the federal deficit.”

Fact: In reality, the Congressional Budget Office in its score of the Alexander-Murray bill said the exact opposite:

Simply comparing outcomes with and without funding for CSRs [cost-sharing reduction payments], CBO and [the Joint Committee on Taxation] expect that federal costs in 2018 would be higher with funding for CSRs because premiums for 2018 have already been finalized and rebates related to CSRs would be less than the CSR payments themselves. [Emphasis mine.]

Insurers have already finalized their premiums for 2018 (in most states, open enrollment ends this Friday, December 15), and when doing so assumed cost-sharing reductions would not be paid. If Congress now turns around and appropriates those payments for 2018, insurers would have the possibility to “double-dip.” That means getting paid twice by the federal government to provide lower cost-sharing to low-income individuals.

While CBO believes insurers will return some of the “extra” subsidies they receive to the federal government—$3.1 billion worth, according to their estimate—they also believe that insurers will keep some portion of the excess, as much as $4-6 billion worth. That dynamic explains why CBO believes federal spending will increase, not decrease, as Alexander claims, if Congress appropriates cost-sharing reduction payments for 2018.

Claim: “The CBO tells us that without these [cost-sharing reduction] payments, taxpayers will spend $194 billion more over a decade to cover the higher [Obamacare] subsidies that come with higher premiums.”

Fact: The $194 billion figure has no bearing to the Alexander-Murray legislation. Elsewhere in the op-ed, Alexander admits his bill would include “two years of temporary cost-sharing reduction payments.” If these payments would be “temporary,” then why cite a purported savings figure for an entire decade? Is Alexander trying to elide the fact that he wants to continue both Obamacare and these taxpayer payments to insurance companies in perpetuity?

Claim: “This bill includes new waiver authority for states to come up with their ideas to reduce premiums.”

Fact: The bill includes precious little new waiver authority for states. On substance, it retains virtually all of the “guardrails” in Obamacare that make implementing conservative ideas—like consumer-driven health-care options that use health savings accounts—impossible in a state waiver. While the bill does provide for a faster process for the federal government to consider waiver applications, without changing the substance of what provisions states can waive, the bill would just result in conservative states getting their waivers rejected more quickly.

Claim: “$10 billion for invisible risk pools or reinsurance funds…”

Fact: This provision appears nowhere in the Alexander-Murray measure. Instead, it comprises a separate bill, introduced by senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Bill Nelson (D-FL). And that bill, as originally introduced, would appropriate not $10 billion in reinsurance funds, but “only” $4.5 billion.

Some conservatives may find it bad enough that, in addition to appropriating roughly $20-25 billion straight to insurance companies in the Alexander-Murray bill, Alexander now wants a second source of taxpayer funds to subsidize insurers. Moreover, by more than doubling the amount of reinsurance funds compared to the original Collins-Nelson bill, Alexander seems to be engaging in a bidding war with himself to determine the greatest amount of taxpayers’ money he can shovel insurers’ way.

Claim: “Almost all House Republicans have already voted for its provisions earlier this year.”

Fact: The “repeal-and-replace” measure 217 Republicans passed in the House did not appropriate money for cost-sharing reduction payments. In fact, not only did the bill not appropriate funds for cost-sharing reductions, Section 131 of the bill repealed the entire cost-sharing reduction program, effective at the end of 2019.

At this point readers may question why Alexander made such a series of incomplete, misleading, and outright false claims in his op-ed. One other tidbit might explain the article’s dissociation with the truth.

Fact: Since 2013, the largest contributor to Alexander’s re-election campaign and leadership PAC has been…Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, a policy consulting firm. He is on Twitter: @chrisjacobsHC.