State AGs file motion to defend cost-sharing reduction payments on appeal

The attorneys general for 15 states and the District of Columbia today filed a motion to intervene in the House Republicans’ lawsuit challenging federal cost-sharing reduction payments under the Affordable Care Act, which reduce out-of-pocket costs for low-income individuals purchasing coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplaces. “The states have a vital interest in this litigation,” the attorneys general said, requesting to become a party to the House v. Price lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. “If the district court’s injunction goes into effect, it would critically undermine the proper implementation of the ACA – just as the House, and now the president, intend. Immediate loss of CSR funding, with any future funding subject to the myriad uncertainties of the appropriations process, would harm millions of state residents and the states themselves.” In addition to Washington, D.C., the motion was filed by the states of California, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Washington. In a friend-of-the-court brief last year, the AHA and other hospital groups said ending the cost-sharing reductions would harm patients’ finances and health, trigger a “death spiral” in the marketplaces, and force hospitals to shoulder an even greater financial burden.