My recollection is:
that the subsidies were authorized but they required specific funding by Congress,
and Congress ended the funding;
then Obama tried to work around that, possibly illegally,
but Trump refused to do that and reminded Congress they had to act if they wanted to fund the subsidies,
and Congress did not and is not funding them.
What can be a relationship between the subsidies and recent big premium increases? MANDATES.
The kinds of plans that must be offered on the ACA exchanges and the MANDATES in the plans INSURES that the insurers are taking on greater risks. How much greater risk was masked by the subsidies.
Congress next ACA act must be to dispense with the MANDATES, making it possible for insurers to offer a very wide range of plans that can meet the financial limits folks can afford to devote to “health insurance”. My only hope with that reform is that it also mandate that health savings accounts (HSA)must be one of the options that must be offered with any plan. The more things folks can pay from HSAs the more they will start to affect cost reductions by providers.
Congress never approved cost sharing subsidies to bail out insurance companies under section 1402. The 1401 subsidies were but they pertained to tax credit subsidies for enrollees. 1402 subsidies never ended because the never started. For Obama to simply confiscate tax payer money without a congressional spending approval was one of many examples of the utter lawlessness of his presidency. Here again, a federal court intervened and declared the executive ordered 1402 subsidies illegal. To this day Obamacare has yet to be fully implemented. Had it from day one, without the many delays, waivers and illegal subsidies it would have completely collapsed under it’s own weight much earlier.