Senators Request Answers from DOJ, HHS on Potential Multimillion Dollar
Insurance Company Bailout
WASHINGTON—Today Senators Mike Lee (R-UT), John Barrasso (R-WY), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Ben Sasse (R-NE) expressed concern over the participation of the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in a potential multimillion dollar bailout of select insurance companies through the Affordable Care Act’s Risk Corridors Program (RCP). In a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Secretary Sylvia Burwell, and Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt, the senators requested an explanation of the availability of funds to settle claims for payment under the RCP.
The letter states: “The health care law contained three risk mitigation programs, one of which is the temporary Risk Corridor Program. This program was originally intended to be implemented in a budget neutral manner. This intention was confirmed when Congress passed, with Presidential approval, two separate provisions of appropriations law confirming its budget neutrality. It now appears the Administration is preparing to circumvent these actions.”
The letter discusses the use of the judgement fund to resolve claims filed against the government for non-payment under the RCP, concluding that “it would be inappropriate for the Judgement Fund to be used to settle any litigation stemming from the risk corridor program. Accordingly, we write to ascertain specifically how CMS intends to go about seeking ‘resolution of those claims’ so that federal law is not violated.”
Full text of the letter is available here.
Press Contacts
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Sen. Lee Statement on Continuing Resolution Vote
WASHINGTON – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) issued the following statement Wednesday, following his vote against a continuing resolution that would fund the federal government through December 9, 2016:
“By funding the government for only three months, this CR sets up a lame-duck session later this year, which is a prime target for special-interest insiders who know just how easy it is to extract benefits from members of Congress who are no longer accountable to their voters.
“Proponents of the bill claim this is what a ‘clean’ CR looks like. They praise the bill for excluding any and all ‘policy riders.’
“But in truth, this CR has plenty of so-called ‘policy riders,’ but only those that received the blessing of the select few who wrote the legislation. So it includes a provision that will give Planned Parenthood a raise, but contains nothing to delay President Obama’s reckless plan to give countries like China, Russia, and Iran more control over the Internet.
“This is not how the Senate should do business and I will not sanction it with my vote.”
An electronic version of this release is available here.
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