This afternoon, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued President Trump over Trump's announcement that he would end subsidies paid to insurance companies to reduce out-of-pocket costs for poor Americans. These subsidies, known as cost-sharing reduction payments (CSR) are a key tenet of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
It's Ferguson's fifth lawsuit against the administration. This time, though, the attorney general isn't alone. Washington was joined by 18 other states in the lawsuit, which was filed in California. The suit argues that the decision to end subsidies will harm these states by increasing premiums, increasing state costs, causing insurers to drop out of healthcare exchanges, and result in more uninsured citizens.
"President Trump may not like the Affordable Care Act, but trying to sabotage it on the backs of hard-working Washingtonians is wrong â and illegal,â Ferguson said in a statement.
State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, who on Thursday warned that Trump's executive order subverting Obamacare could result in "irreparable damage," called Trump's most recent move "an assault on thousands of working families and individuals in our state." The lawsuit warns that deleting CSRs could increase premiums not just for the poorest Washingtonians, but all 240,000 individuals enrolled in ACA plans.
Read the legal complaint here.
