WASHINGTON, DC - The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office today issued a legal opinion demonstrating that the administration lacks a congressional appropriation to use taxpayer dollars to cover insurance company losses in 2015 under the health law’s risk corridor program. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-AL) requested the report.
“Following the law matters. We had serious concerns with the legality of the Obama administration’s plan from the get go, and the government’s watchdog confirms we were right," said Upton. “Today’s report sounds the alarm once again on the administration’s efforts to unlawfully subsidize its health care law with taxpayer dollars. American taxpayers are already on the hook for a still-incomplete health exchange with a price tag that exceeds $2 billion."
“GAO has confirmed beyond dispute that the Department of Health and Human Services has no legal authority to disburse risk corridor payments under Obamacare absent a congressional appropriation" said Sessions. “I hope this nips in the bud any ideas this overreaching Administration might have of paying out money not appropriated by Congress. Such expenditures would violate bedrock separation of powers principles in the Constitution."
The Energy and Commerce Committee released a memo prepared by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service in February raising questions about the ability of the administration to make payments through the risk corridor program. Committee members Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) and Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) have also introduced legislation to protect taxpayer dollars.
