GOP demands halt to O-Care subsidies
House Republicans are demanding a halt to all premium subsidies under ObamaCare until the administration can prove it is paying the correct amount in every case.
GOP members of the Ways and Means Committee pointed Wednesday to a report that hundreds of thousands of people might be receiving incorrect subsidies on the exchanges.
{mosads}The lawmakers called it “outrageous” that the administration expects to recapture the incorrect payments from insurers sometime in the future.
“We write to demand that the Treasury Department halt all subsidy payments to insurers until [Treasury] is able and willing to verify income information and ensure it is not making erroneous payments,” the members wrote to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew.
The letter is the GOP’s strongest response so far to the mistakes.
Consumers who received either over or underpayments have been notified, but few have submitted proof of income documents that would help the government determine the correct subsidy.
Making matters worse, the administration has not yet built a system to cross-check those documents against original applications in order to solve the problem, according to the Washington Post, which first broke the story.
Ways and Means Republicans tried to gauge the size of the problem by asking Lew for a slew of details, including an estimate of how many overpayments took place and will be subject to recapture.
GOP members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee asked federal health officials and three private contractors similar questions in another letter this week.
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