File Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump (L, front) is greeted by former U.S. President Barack Obama after delivering his inaugural address during the presidential inauguration ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C., the United States, on Jan. 20, 2017. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- The White House announced Thursday it will end subsidies to health insurance companies that help lower out-of-pocket costs for low-income customers, another move intended to unravel the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.
"Based on guidance from the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services has concluded that there is no appropriation for cost-sharing reduction payments to insurance companies under Obamacare," the White House said in a statement late Thursday.
"In light of this analysis, the government cannot lawfully make the cost-sharing reduction payments," the statement said.
The plan came hours after the U.S. President Donald Trump signed a health care executive order that could led to sweeping changes in the country's health care system, with proposals for cheaper, bare-bone health insurance plans by circumventing Obamacare rules.
"The United States House of Representatives sued the previous administration in Federal court for making these payments without such an appropriation, and the court agreed that the payments were not lawful," according to the statement.
The White House blasted the bailout of insurance companies through these payments as "another example of how the previous administration abused taxpayer dollars and skirted the law to prop up a broken system."
It also urged Congress to "repeal and replace the disastrous Obamacare law and provide real relief to the American people."
Analysts said the absence of the subsidies could quickly turn insurance markets into turmoil as the administration's measures to push for health care reform are expected to drive up insurance premiums and cause a massive fleeing from the marketplace by insurance companies.
Top Democratic leaders, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, said in a joint statement that Trump had "apparently decided to punish the American people for his inability to improve our health care system."
"It is a spiteful act of vast, pointless sabotage leveled at working families and the middle class in every corner of America," the statement said. "Make no mistake about it, Trump will try to blame the Affordable Care Act, but this will fall on his back and he will pay the price for it."
But House Speaker Paul Ryan believes the White House proposal "preserves a monumental affirmation of Congress's authority and the separation of powers."
"Obamacare has proven itself to be a fatally flawed law, and the House will continue to work with Trump administration to provide the American people a better system," the Republican congressman said in a statement late Thursday.
Earlier Thursday, Trump signed an executive order to gut Obamacare after the GOP-controlled Congress's repeated failure to get it repealed or replaced, a decision strongly opposed by Democrats.
