Sen. Warner on President Trump’s decision to end CSR payments

U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), a member of the Senate Finance and Budget Committees, today responded to the announcement by President Trump that he will unilaterally cut off the Cost-Sharing Reduction (CSR) payments required under the Affordable Care Act, thereby increasing Americans’ health premiums by 20 percent or more.

“The Trump Administration is determined to inject chaos and confusion through its unilateral efforts to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, even though these actions will again raise costs and limit healthcare choices for working families. There is no debate about the results of President Trump’s irresponsible actions in the past 24 hours. By taking a wrecking ball to the ACA, the Trump Administration has itself created additional hardship and anxiety for many Virginia families, and undermines real progress on the Senate’s bipartisan efforts to bring stability to the individual health care marketplace,” said Sen. Warner.

Fifty-six percent of Virginians who buy insurance in the ACA marketplace rely on cost-sharing reductions to keep their health care costs affordable. In fact, in some Virginia localities—including Lee, Scott, Wise, Halifax, Sussex, Accomack, Page, Madison, Rappahannock, and Richmond counties—approximately 100% of marketplace enrollees receive some form of cost sharing reduction.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), eliminating the CSRs will raise ACA premiums for next year by an estimated 20 percent as insurers raise prices to make up for the lost payments. It’s also expected that the number of uninsured Americans would rise by 1 million in 2018, relative to current law, and by 2020, premiums are expected to increase by 25 percent. Ending the payments is also expected to cost the government an additional $194 billion over the next decade, compared to current law.