House, administration again request continuance in ACA cost-sharing subsidies challenge

House Republicans and the Trump administration today asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to continue to suspend proceedings in House v. Price (formerly House v. Burwell), saying the parties “continue to discuss measures that would obviate the need for judicial determination of this appeal, including potential legislative action.” The Obama administration filed the appeal after the district court ruled for the House, which challenged the Obama administration for reimbursing insurers for cost-sharing subsidies provided through the Health Insurance Marketplace. In a friend-of-the-court brief last October, the AHA, Federation of American Hospitals, Catholic Health Association of the United States, and Association of American Medical Colleges said that ending the Affordable Care Act’s cost-sharing subsidies would harm patients’ finances and health, trigger a “death spiral” in the health insurance exchanges, and force hospitals to shoulder an even greater financial burden, making it harder for them to serve their communities. Last week, the attorneys general for 15 states and the District of Columbia filed a motion to defend the cost-sharing reduction payments in the court of appeals, saying “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.”