sounds like a double standard
I don’t see it that way. To me this is simple, and I think it is rooted in common law and contract law. If I promise you $30 to drive me to the airport and you drive me there, you wouldn’t accept if I tried to pay only $20. We had an agreement. You performed based on my promise and you’d be right to expect me to perform to my end of our agreement.
The deal with the insurance companies was limited to certain policies, certain regions, and over a fixed period of time. It’s not eternal.
Medicaid is made available year after year but it is only available to those who qualify in the period they apply for it. Just because you got it last year doesn’t mean you’re entitled to it this year. And these insurance companies are not expecting to be reimbursed on an ongoing basis - only for what they were told they would be credited for offering those limited numbers of policies for that limited period of time.
I think the entire ACA was a boneheaded idea, a boondoggle for insurance companies, destructive to the country and the economy. But that’s not really relevant to my thinking here. A deal was made, they honored their end of the deal. We need to honor our end.