Meet The Incompetent White House Staffer Behind The Proposed Obamacare Bailout For several reasons, the proposed bailout appears to trace back to one individual—Andrew Bremberg, head of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council. By Christopher Jacobs
February 15, 2018 My Monday article outlining how the Trump administration’s budget proposed bailing out Obamacare caught some by surprise, on several levels. First, the proposal to shovel $11.5 billion to insurers via risk corridors touched on an obscure issue barely discussed since the 2016 election, with no proposals pending before Congress. Second, when I asked administration officials on Monday whether the budget included any Obamacare bailouts, even staff at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) did not know of these provisions’ inclusion.
For several reasons, the proposed bailout appears to trace back to one individual—Andrew Bremberg, head of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council. First, a Washington Post story in October on the Senate proposal to fund cost-sharing reduction payments that the Trump administration cancelled made clear that Bremberg, unlike many of his White House colleagues, supports bailing out Obamacare:
During the negotiations, Democrats had proposed delaying the open enrollment period for [Obamacare] plans, which is set to begin Nov. 1, for a month after the bill’s enactment to ensure that firms could lower their 2018 premium rates to reflect the fact that the government would keep funding the subsidies. White House Domestic Policy Council Director Andrew Bremberg opposed that provision, Schumer said, but he added that Democrats are willing to insert stronger language to guarantee that insurers pass on the payments to their customers. [Emphasis mine.]
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http://thefederalist.com/2018/02/15/meet-incompetent-white-house-staffer-behind-proposed-obamacare-bailout/
