On Thursday, the Obama administration quietly announced it will allow consumers in states with busted Obamacare websites to retroactively bag taxpayer-funded insurance subsidies, even if they purchased health insurance outside the Obamacare marketplace.
The move by the Obama administration will help Democratic candidates facing voters irate over Obamacare by now retroactively cutting checks to citizens in states with broken Obamacare websites. As CBS News reports, “Those who stand to benefit the most are Democratic governors who plunged ahead and ran into problems” because “Republican governors basically defaulted to federal control of online sign-ups in their states.”
Democratic Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber was ecstatic, especially since his state’s failed Obamacare website has yet to enroll a single person online, even though his state scored $304 million in federal grants to build its busted Obamacare website.
“I applaud the federal government for its efforts to make this financial assistance available for more Oregonians,” Kitzhaber said.
The latest unilateral Obamacare change comes on the heels of 28 others. Republicans have blasted Obama for what it considers unconstitutional changes to a law without the consent of Congress. The procedures for how exactly customers will claim retroactive taxpayer-funded subsidy checks is presently unclear.
“We recognize that some states have experienced difficulties in processing automated eligibility determinations and enrollments, and (are) providing options to marketplaces to ensure eligible consumers have access to financial assistance and issuers are paid,” said the Obama administration in a statement.