HARRISBURG, Pa. — Attorney General Josh Shapiro is joining 18 other counterparts in a lawsuit against President Donald Trump.
The lawsuit comes after Trump announced that he would stop the cost-sharing reduction payments from the Affordable Care Act.
The subsidies reimburse insurers for reducing the deductibles and co-pays of lower-income Obamacare enrollees.
Shapiro issued this statement:
“The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land. It set up cost sharing reduction payments so Americans could have the ability to purchase individual health insurance plans on their own.
Without these payments, insurance premiums for the more than 400,000 Pennsylvanians who buy individual insurance plans will skyrocket and some plans may no longer be available at all. Though he has made these payments since taking office, President Trump has declared that he will stop them immediately.
If the President’s attempt to destabilize the health care market succeeds, it will have a devastating impact on Pennsylvania families, our economy and the health care market in our Commonwealth.
That’s why today I am joining with 18 fellow Attorneys General to sue the President to prevent him from stopping these payments. Our lawsuit alleges that, by stopping these payments unilaterally, President Trump has acted arbitrarily and capriciously and in clear violation of his legal responsibilities under the Affordable Care Act. And through his ongoing efforts to sabotage the ACA, he has failed in his constitutional obligation to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
President Trump swore an oath to uphold our laws. Under the Affordable Care Act, the Administration must make these payments, no matter the President’s personal views.”
