Without a congressional appropriation, the Trump administration could still stop the payments any month. | Carolyn Kaster/AP Trump administration will make this month’s Obamacare payments but leaves program’s future in limbo

The Trump administration will make this month's Obamacare payments to insurers, a White House spokesman confirmed today, despite the president's repeated threats to cut off the subsidies and potentially tip the insurance markets into turmoil.

It’s widely anticipated that insurers would jack up premiums or exit the Obamacare markets altogether if the subsidies, worth about $7 billion this year, are eliminated. Insurance premiums for the most popular Obamacare plans would likely rise by 20 percent next year if the payments are stopped, according to a Tuesday CBO analysis.


The administration's decision was immediately denounced by an influential GOP House conservative, suggesting mounting tensions among Republicans about how to move forward on health care after the repeal effort collapsed in the Senate late last month.

At issue are subsidies that insurers rely on to reduce out-of-pocket costs for low-income Obamacare customers. Insurers would still be on the hook to provide the discounted rates even if the federal payments stop.

House Republicans filed a lawsuit in 2014 arguing that the Obama administration didn’t have the authority to make the payments without a congressional appropriation — and prevailed at the lower court level. The Obama administration appealed that ruling, but the Trump administration has avoided making a decision about whether to continue the appeal or drop it.

Without a congressional appropriation, the Trump administration could still stop the payments any month. That provides little certainty to insurers who must finalize 2018 health plans in the coming weeks.

Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, on Wednesday criticized the White House for continuing the payments and Senate Republicans for dropping the repeal effort.

"Instead of the executive branch issuing unconstitutional payments to bail out insurance companies, the Senate should continue working until they have passed a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare," Walker said in a statement. "Their constituents are tired of their inability to fulfill their promise."

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Obamacare repeal packages considered by the House and Senate, H.R. 1628, both included short-term funding for the program, but their legislative efforts have stalled. Some Republican lawmakers have increasingly called for funding the Obamacare subsidies in a separate package to stabilize the law's marketplaces.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, praised the decision to continue the payments. Alexander further called on Congress to appropriate money for the program and allow states greater flexibility to run their health care systems when lawmakers return from recess next month.

"These two actions will help make insurance policies available at affordable prices," Alexander (R-Tenn.) said in a statement. "Congress owes struggling Americans who buy their insurance in the individual market a breakthrough in the health care stalemate."