Ben Sasse Wants HHS to Pay $5 Billion to Treasury Required Under Obamacare Program

[Geee]

Heritage Foundation:

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., introduced a bill Thursday that would force the Obama administration to deposit $5 billion in the Treasury by 2017 as required under Obamacare’s reinsurance program or face steep cuts to its departmental management fund this year and next year.

 

Called the “Taxpayers Before Insurers Act,” Sasse’s legislation codifies penalties for the Department of Health and Human Services should it choose to again divert billions of dollars in reinsurance payments intended for the U.S. Treasury to insurers.

 

Republican lawmakers have criticized the Obama administration for using the transitional reinsurance program to bail out insurance companies after it prioritized $3.5 billion in reinsurance payments to insurers instead of the taxpayers.