WASHINGTON, DC - Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell is set to return to 2123 RHOB Wednesday to testify before the Health Subcommittee on the agency’s 2017 budget request. Her appearance is timely given the committee’s still unanswered questions on Obamacare’s cost-sharing reduction program as well as the recent revelation that the administration has “looted" billions in taxpayer dollars to prop up insurance companies.
In advance of the hearing, the subcommittee highlights some of the biggest ailments and the prescriptions it hopes to hear during Secretary Burwell’s testimony.
AILMENT: Unlawful reinsurance payments to insurance companies
Despite clear guidance in the text of Obamacare, for the second year in a row, CMS is yet again giving reinsurance payments to insurance companies, instead of to the U.S. Treasury. Over the last two benefit years, CMS issued $3.5 billion in reinsurance payments.
Rx: HHS must immediately stop these funds from unlawfully going to insurers, and send the money to the U.S. Treasury.
AILMENT: Unauthorized payments for Obamacare’s Cost-Sharing Reduction Program
The administration has been unlawfully paying insurance companies from a fund intended for tax refunds. More than $5 billion has been doled out, despite lacking a lawful appropriation from Congress to make such payments. Along with the Ways and Means Committee, Energy and Commerce has been requesting documents and information from HHS and Treasury to understand the administration’s decision to pay for the program without a lawful appropriation. Despite the repeated requests, the administration continues to thwart and obstruct the committees’ investigations. Subpoenas have already been issued to Treasury and will be issued to HHS if the administration fails to comply swiftly.
Rx: HHS must stop making these payments and immediately fulfill the committees’ requests for documents and information.
AILMENT: Unauthorized payments for Obamacare’s Basic Health Program
The administration has also been financing this Obamacare program without a lawful appropriation from Congress. The administration has already spent $1.3 billion on the Basic Health Program, illegally spending from a permanent appropriation used for tax refunds. Along with the Ways and Means Committee, Energy and Commerce has been requesting documents from HHS for months, but the agency has refused to produce the documents, forcing the committees to threaten subpoenas.
Rx: HHS must stop making these payments and immediately fulfill the committees’ requests for documents and information.
AILMENT: HHS continues to miss critical deadlines
Obamacare is about to mark its sixth anniversary, but HHS and other federal agencies continue to miss mandated statutory deadlines within the law. According to the most recent audit, in the law’s fifth year of enactment, HHS had a total of five deadlines to meet between March 24, 2014 and March 23, 2015. Of those five deadlines, they were late, totally missed, or received an incomplete on four. A failing grade is unacceptable, particularly when health care is such a large portion of our economy.
Rx: HHS will not miss another deadline.
AILMENT: Growing uncertainty about entitlement programs
Medicare and Medicaid spending continues to be on the rise, yet there doesn’t appear to be a path forward from the administration on how to ensure these critical programs exist for the next generation of beneficiaries.
Rx: HHS commits to working together with Congress to bring forward bipartisan solutions that will ensure all future beneficiaries get the coverage and treatment they need.
Be sure to tune in to Wednesday’s hearing to see what Secretary Burwell actually has to say about these and other questions.
