Federal judge denies preliminary injunction in cost-sharing subsidies case

A federal judge yesterday denied a request by California and 18 other states for an emergency ruling requiring the Trump administration to continue subsidizing cost-sharing reductions insurers provide lower-income people who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges. The administration terminated the subsidy payments this month. In denying the states’ request for a preliminary injunction until the court rules on their legal challenge to the administration’s decision, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria said the emergency relief “would be counterproductive” because most state regulators have devised responses to the termination of payments “that give millions of lower-income people better health coverage options than they would otherwise have had.” In a friend-of-the-court brief filed Saturday in the case, the AHA, Federation of American Hospitals, Catholic Health Association of the United States, and Association of American Medical Colleges said that ending the 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.