SAN FRANCISCO -- California and other states have protected consumers from the Trump administration's decision to cut off Affordable Care Act health care subsidies, a federal judge said Monday, so people don't face an immediate threat of higher costs that would lead him to order the payments resumed.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria did not issue a ruling yet on a request by California and 17 other states to force the government to keep making the payments while the case works its way through the courts, which will take months.
State attorneys general, led by California Democrat Xavier Becerra, argue the monthly payments are required under former President Barack Obama's health care law and stopping them will hurt consumers.
The cost-sharing payments aim to reduce out-of-pocket costs for lower-income people. President Donald Trump halted the subsidies earlier this month, criticizing them as insurance company bailouts.
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California and other states had anticipated the subsidies would end and found a way to ensure consumers would not pay more for insurance, Chhabria said during a hearing. The states limited the plans for which insurance companies could increase premiums, ensuring that many people would receive additional tax credits for health care purchases, the judge said.
The Obama appointee peppered an attorney for California with questions about why he should force the administration to resume payments when there was no immediate harm to consumers.
"The state of California is standing on the courthouse steps denouncing the president for taking away people's health care, when the truth is that California has come up with a solution to that issue that is going to result in better health care for a lot of people," he said.
Gregory Brown, who represented California at the hearing, said the loss of the subsidies was creating "uncertainty and chaos" that could lead insurance companies to opt out of the health law.
Brown also said the Trump administration's decision would "spook consumers."
The judge said it was important to have stability and certainty in health insurance markets, but the states were talking about problems that could occur years from now, by which time he could have ruled on the case.
The White House says the government cannot legally pay the subsidies because there is no formal authorization from Congress.
However, the administration had been making the monthly payments even as Trump threatened to cut them off to force Democrats to negotiate over health care. A bipartisan effort in Congress to restore the payments has run into opposition.
The payments reimburse insurers for the costs of lowering copays and deductibles, which they are required to do for low-income customers who buy coverage through the health care marketplaces created by Obama's law.
A Section on 10/24/2017