CNSNews
Susan Jones | October 13, 2017 | 4:53 AM EDT
[excerpt]
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/trump-further-dismantles-obamacare-overnight-ending-illegal-cost-sharing(CNSNews.com) - Late Thursday night, the Trump administration announced that cost-sharing reduction payments to health insurers -- a key prop for Obamacare -- "must stop, effective immediately."
"CSR payments are prohibited unless and until a valid appropriation exists," said Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a legal opinion issued to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Treasury Department.
Sessions' legal opinion reads in part:
As you are aware, the prior administration originally sought an appropriation to fund CSR payments--suggesting it believed such an appropriation was necessary-–but then later concluded that section 1324’s permanent appropriation was available. The U.S. House of Representatives sued, contending that Congress had not appropriated funds for CSR payments. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia agreed, holding that section 1324 does not appropriate funds for CSR payments.
