Federal "Risk Corridor" Subsidy Payment Case Sent Back To Lower Courts, Again...

This morning, as we previously reported about 14 months ago. . . the Supremes weighed in, and effectively said the federal government may net amounts of money owed to insurance companies for undertaking risk corridor health policies under Obamacare, against other "over-payments" to the insurers, for reduced loss experiences. It will now continue, in the lower courts, to get hashed out.

To be clear, this is not in any manner a rebuke of the ACA of 2010 -- and is simply how much the various healh insurers will end up pocketing, in profits, for agreeing to offer insurance to previously higher risk pool patients (most, previously uninsured altogether). Here is the latest, on it all:

. . .The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a bid by health insurance companies to seek a full reimbursement from the federal government under a provision of the Obamacare law aimed at encouraging them to offer medical coverage to uninsured Americans.

The justices turned away appeals brought by private insurers Maine Community Health Options, Community Health Choice and Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative.

The insurers had said they were collectively owed millions of dollars for each year they did not receive payments the government had pledged to make under the 2010 law, formally called the Affordable Care Act. Litigation will now continue in lower courts over how much the insurers can claim. . . .

Now you know -- onward, grinning. . . in Condor's opinion, this will not alter the scope of coverage in the US in any meaningful way.

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