Obama Administration Paves Way for Obamacare Bailout

A 436-page stack of regulations released on Friday by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) paved the way for the Obama administration to bailout health insurers who lost money on Obamacare.

Originally, the Obama administration promised its so-called “risk corridors”–a program to shift money from profit-making insurers to underperforming insurers to keep down premiums–would be temporary. On Friday, however, HHS said despite the fact that it expects there will be sufficient funds available, “in the unlikely event of a shortfall for the 2015 program year… [the Department of Health and Human Services] will use other sources of funding for the risk corridor payment” and that additional funding would “be subject to the availability of appropriations.” 

Last month, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced a bill called “The Obamacare Taxpayer Bailout Protection Act” that would prevent the expansion of Obamacare’s risk corridors. 

“Taxpayers cannot be expected to foot the bill for Washington’s mistakes when the law fails,” said Rubio. “This provision holds the Administration to its word and takes a common sense approach to guaranteeing taxpayers are protected from further paying for a reckless and irresponsible law that should never have passed in the first place.”

News of the Obamacare bailout comes as early filings by insurers in the states of Washington and Virginia show several insurers projecting double-digit premium increases in 2015 due to Obamacare.