Obamacare, unsustainable

Portland Tribune: Health Republic Insurance Company of Oregon, a Lake Oswego-based insurer that is phasing down its operations, on Wednesday filed a $5 billion class action lawsuit on behalf of insurers it says were shorted by the federal government under an Obamacare program.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States Court of Federal Claims, focuses on a program that was intended to offset insurer losses in the early years of the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Instead, payments to insurers under the "risk corridor" program amounted to 12.6 percent of the amount expected for 2014, and are expected to be similarly low for 2015.

Federal law and regulations "are unequivocal about the payments the Government must make," according to the lawsuit. "The law is clear: the Government must abide by its statutory obligations."

The federal government has said it hopes to make insurers whole by using funds from subsequent years to make up payments still owed from earlier years. "In the event of a shortfall for the 2016 program year, HHS will explore other sources of funding for risk corridors payments, subject to the availability of appropriations. This includes working with Congress on the necessary funding for outstanding risk corridors payments," according to a federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website.

Congress did not budget the reserves needed to cover insurance losses during the phase in . This is contract law, Nancy Pelosi promised the do-re-mi and the courts will make her pay.