Sen. Heitkamp Issues Statement on President Cutting Off Federal Health Care Funds

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 -- The office of Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., issued the following news release:

U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp today expressed serious concern after the president announced he will cut off federal funding that helps make health care affordable for families, known as cost sharing reduction payments. As a result, many individuals and families will see their premiums skyrocket by double digits.

A recent report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that if the administration stopped paying the cost sharing reduction payments, as it has now done, there would be serious consequences for individuals and families across the country. The report said families' premiums would jump by about 20 percent, many families would be left without health insurance options as the lack of payments would force many insurers to leave the market, and it would add $194 billion to the deficit over a decade.

In North Dakota, 47 percent of consumers on the health insurance marketplace receive cost sharing reduction payments.

Earlier this year, Heitkamp cosponsored a bill to bring stability to the insurance marketplace by permanently appropriating the cost-sharing reduction payments and making cost-sharing reductions available to more individuals and families, reducing costs for families and ensuring access to care.

"This disheartening decision was about claiming a political win, not supporting American families," said Heitkamp. "Republicans and Democrats should want to make health care more accessible and affordable for families, but all that this move does is force families' health care premiums to jump by double digits, reduce access to care, and add almost $200 billion to the deficit. We already saw Medica leave the North Dakota insurance market just based on the threat that these payments wouldn't happen - now it's a reality. Several months ago, I cosponsored a bill to fix this problem so the administration couldn't take away North Dakotans' health care with the stroke of a pen. And over the past several weeks, I've been working with a bipartisan group of senators on some immediate fixes to the health care system - and these payments are at the top of our list. We need real, bipartisan solutions to improve health care for families and make sure every child has access to the affordable health care they deserve. Anything less is just wrong."

For months, the administration threatened to stop the cost sharing reduction payments - which help Americans afford health coverage. That uncertainty caused by the administration -- as well as House and Senate Republicans - has been creating instability in the insurance markets, threatening significant cost increases for consumers in 2018. Independent reports from the Congressional Budget Office and Standard & Poor's have said the insurance markets were expected to stabilize this year unless the administration causes disruptions. A CBO report from May stated that several factors could lead health insurers to leave the marketplaces, including uncertainty about the future of the cost sharing reduction payments which help reduce costs.

Over the past four and a half years, Heitkamp has been offering reasonable reforms that should be bipartisan to make the current health reform law work better for North Dakota families. Click here for a summary of the many proposals she has offered since 2013 to make health care more affordable and accessible. Over the past few months and weeks, she has been meeting with a group of Republican and Democratic senators led by Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), as well as governors, insurance commissioners, patients, and insurers, to talk about reforms to make the health reform law work better.

Since 2013, Heitkamp has also met regularly with her health care advisory board - comprised of health care leaders across North Dakota -- to talk with them about health care in the state and improving the health reform law.