Government Accountability Office auditors claim the Obama administration paid insurers using funds that were intended for the federal Treasury, according to The New York Times.
Here are five key points:
1. In a legal opinion, the GAO report said the Obama administration, "ignored the statutory requirement to collect funds for the Treasury" despite the Affordable Care Act requirement being articulated in "explicitly mandatory language," NYT reported.
2. The Obama administration countered that it needed to pay the payers to keep premiums at bay, and used discretion when allocating the funds between payers and the Treasury.
3. A HHS spokesperson said the administration "strongly disagrees" with the GAO's opinion of the health law's interpretation.
4. The ACA's reinsurance program aims to keep premiums from escalating and promote payer participation in the ACA exchanges. Under the program, the ACA states that a portion of the money in the program "shall be deposited into the general fund of the Treasury of the United States and may not be used for the program." The Treasury is to use the funds to give payers financial assistance.
5. The auditor claims the administration was supposed to collect $25 billion from 2014 to 2016 and deposit $5 billion of that into the Treasury, based on ACA requirements. Auditors claimed, despite collections falling well below the set $25 billion, the administration allocated almost all the money to insurers, rather than a justified split between payers and the Treasury.
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