Posted on 09/30/2016 7:32:22 AM PDT by Semper911
The Obama administration is maneuvering to pay health insurers billions of dollars the government owes under the Affordable Care Act, through a move that could circumvent Congress and help shore up the president’s signature legislative achievement before he leaves office.
Justice Department officials have privately told several health plans suing over the unpaid money that they are eager to negotiate a broad settlement, which could end up offering payments to about 175 health plans selling coverage on ACA marketplaces, according to insurance executives and lawyers familiar with the talks.
The payments most likely would draw from an obscure Treasury Department fund intended to cover federal legal claims, the executives and lawyers said. This approach would get around a recent congressional ban on the use of Health and Human Services money to pay the insurers.
...A settlement probably would rely on Treasury’s Judgment Fund, a 1950s creation that is allowed as much money as it needs to satisfy valid claims against the government.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
They don’t uphold their promises to us so no reason to expect they’re going to uphold the Constitution. They are all a bunch of professional liars.
INCREDIBLE! I had no idea there was any funding still out there he’d not already stolen much less an obscure one with the billions of dollars he just happens to need right now.
I recall towards the end of the last Bush Administration billions of dollars were stolen under a different scenario. Seems to be a pattern here folks.
Just like they do with environmental lawsuits where EPA gets an enviro wacko group to sue and EPA enters into a consent decree. New law without all that messy legislative action.
Now they can get any of their friends to sue for anything, then Just Us will agree to a settlement for an $Unlimited amount.
The fact that this unlimited payout without the need for a specific appropriation hasn’t been challenged in its 60 year history tells you all you need to know about DC. Neither congress nor the courts cares.
So in other words he intends to steal the money.
from the story...
“Just six co-ops remain. Four of them, including two that have closed, are among the seven insurers suing the government for lack of payment.”
Is this a trick statement? Clear as mud.
I studied it awhile.
6 co-ops remain.
4 of those 6 are in a group that is suing the government.
2 of those 4 are closed.
A total of 7 co-ops are suing the government.
So, of the 7 co-ops that are suing the government, 4 are in the group that remains and 3 that don’t remain.
The only part I can’t get is how is a co-op that is “closed” is still considered to “remain”?
I guess it’s what their meaning of the words “closed” and “remain” are.
Maybe “closed” means that the co-op “remains” but isn’t accepting new customers.
Maybe “remains” means an open, yet still functioning (accepting new customers), co-op.
In any case, if this statement was meant to clarify anything, it was a poor attempt.
Obama’s been sending money to all parts of the World from Day One
The purpose of the Judgement Fund (31 USC § 1304) is “to pay final judgments, awards, compromise settlements, and interest and costs specified in the judgments or otherwise authorized by law”
> signature legislative achievement
Cult of personality
So NOW my premiums will be $2,500 lower?
Well said.
From the article, it seems likely the money is not presently in the fund; if so, it would further seem the Repubs would need to take legislative action to make it so: ...Treasury’s Judgment Fund, a 1950s creation that is allowed as much money as it needs to satisfy valid claims against the government.
So, on the eve of perhaps the most important elections in the history or our nation, it appears the Dems have got the R's right where they want them.
“billions of dollars the government owes “
The government doesn’t owe. The insurers have been paid in full per the law.
That is, of course, what ultimately may be the controlling fact. The waters will certainly be muddied by the "...compromise settlements..." language, together with the fact the O regime has demonstrated it is not bound by a strict reading of the law.
But it is not a fund, like a pot of money that sits there. It is an accounting trick -- when they need money (for the judgments, settlements, etc.), they are authorized to put money in this "fund" and make payouts from there.
They are using this for no other reason than to circumvent Congress on the funding of Obamacare, after Congress has told them No. More. Money.
And who TF knows where the money is actually coming from.
I agree. I’d like to know just what judgement is claimed to “justify” this use.
Hey can you tell me more about that? Very curious about it. Do you mean they have already been paid what Congress approved?
how about REPARATIONS!! This is madness. This must be enjoined by a conservative federal Judges immediately. Thanks for the tip!!
I don't know but it's a pretty good system he's got set up.
Obama: "Hey Insurance companies, I can't pay you with an allocation from Congress, so just sue us and then I can pay you from this treasury fund thing. And no one can stop us."
Yes. It is huge. It should be above the fold in every paper and at the top of every news hour.
For days.
But it won't, and Obama knows it.
Obama and Congress call it the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing (http://www.moneyfactory.gov/)
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