The Obama administration is reportedly considering expanding the subsidies available to buy health insurance policies under Obamacare as a means of helping people who have recently seen their plans canceled or premiums increased.
The Huffington Post reported Friday that the proposed fix would assist people who must replace their existing plans with a new Obamacare plan but whose income (400 percent of the federal poverty level and above) is too high to qualify for financial assistance under the law. An official told Huffington Post that the White House is “looking at an administrative fix for the population of people in the individual market who may have an increase in premiums, but don’t get subsidies.”
It’s not clear what power the administration would have to expand subsidies administratively. Increased subsidies would face dim prospects in the GOP-controlled House, which has voted more than 40 times to repeal or defund all or part of Obamacare. House Republican sources did not immediately respond to TPM’s request for comment.
President Obama told NBC News in a Thursday interview: “I want to do everything we can to make sure that people are finding themselves in a good position, a better position than they were before this law happened.”
