Over the last several months, the Energy and Commerce Committee has been investigating the Obama administration’s illegal diversion of billions of taxpayer dollars to insurance companies to prop up Obamacare. But the administration has failed to cooperate and refuses to provide even basic facts on its Transitional Reinsurance Program. In an effort to break the stonewall and obtain important information, full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) issued a subpoena this week for key documents.
“Congress should not have to issue subpoenas to gain basic facts, but sadly that’s become the case with the Obama administration," said Chairman Upton. “Billions of dollars are being illegally diverted, and taxpayers are on the short end."
June 29, 2016
House subpoenas documents on $3.5 billion in Obamacare payments
A House panel subpoenaed the Obama administration for documents surrounding what it says are $3.5 billion in improper payments to insurers to “prop up Obamacare."
The House Energy and Commerce Committee issued a subpoena on Monday for all documents on payments under Obamacare’s reinsurance program. The subpoena is the latest step in an investigation by the panel into the payments, which Democrats charge is “overblown."
House lawmakers said that the payments are illegal and that the administration has stonewalled attempts to get documents.
“Congress should not have to issue subpoenas to get basic facts, but sadly that’s become the case with the Obama administration," said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., committee chairman.
The subpoena is in response to the administration refusing to produce the documents. The committee said in a press release that the administration wouldn’t produce them due to “confidentiality interests."
The reinsurance program, which expires next year, was created to help insurers adjust to the new insurance markets created under Obamacare’s exchanges. Insurers pay into the program and that funding is used to offset claims from the sickest patients.
Republicans have said that a portion of the funding, $3.5 billion, was supposed to go to the Treasury Department. However, Republican lawmakers said during an April hearing that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services changed its position on the payments and diverted them to insurers. …
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