The White House has announced the immediate scrapping of subsidies to health insurance companies introduced under the Obamacare health law to reduce out-of-pocket medical expenses for low-income earners.
The decision to stop paying the subsidies was made on guidance from the Justice Department, after Republicans successfully claimed the Affordable Care Act did not contain specific language providing appropriations to cover the cost - an estimated £6.7bn for the coming year.
“The government cannot lawfully make the cost-sharing reduction payments. Congress needs to repeal and replace the disastrous Obamacare law and provide real relief to the American people,” the White House said in a statement.
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“After Republicans failed to repeal the health law in Congress, Trump appears determined to dismantle it on his own,” says The New York Times.
In a joint statement, the top Democrats in Congress, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer of New York, said Trump had “apparently decided to punish the American people for his inability to improve our health care system”.
“It is a spiteful act of vast, pointless sabotage levelled at working families and the middle class in every corner of America,” the pair said.
Trump has threatened for months to stop the payments, which go to insurers that are currently required by the law “to help eligible consumers afford their deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses”, says The Washington Post.
The announcement came shortly after the US president signed a new executive order allowing small businesses to band together across state lines in order to buy cheaper, less-regulated health plans for employees that offer fewer benefits.
“It was Trump’s most concrete step to undo Obamacare since he took office in January promising to dismantle Democratic former president Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement,” Reuters says.
