ObamaCare’s blank-check bailout for health insurers

On Friday, the federal government released more than 400 pages of health-care regulations. Buried deep within these pages are new laws that allow for bailouts of the insurers participating in the ObamaCare exchanges – should they lose money in the program. The Affordable Care Act, or ACA, includes provisions to pay insurers for their financial...

On Friday, the federal government released more than 400 pages of health-care regulations. Buried deep within these pages are new laws that allow for bailouts of the insurers participating in the ObamaCare exchanges – should they lose money in the program.

The Affordable Care Act, or ACA, includes provisions to pay insurers for their financial losses in the ObamaCare exchanges. Instead of being budget neutral as originally promised – meaning money is pooled from each insurer and added to tax revenue from a new tax on health insurance plans – the new regulations put American taxpayers on the hook for a blank check to pay for the president’s misguided health insurance scheme.

Legislative proposals, such as the “Obamacare Taxpayer Bailout Prevention Act” and the “No Bailouts for Insurance Industry Act of 2014,” provide an important opportunity to remind taxpayers of the true cost of the misnamed “Affordable Care Act.” ObamaCare is not affordable and is doing the opposite of its promised goals.

This issue is yet one more reason why it is time to go back to the drawing board to craft solutions that give individuals, rather than giving federal bureaucrats and the health insurance lobby, authority over health-care decisions. Forcing citizens to foot the bill for even more ObamaCare failure is not fair and it further destroys the prospect of affordable health care.