Comstock's magazine 1117 - November 2017 | Page 35

The Trump administration recently
announced it would no longer pay the
federal subsidies that help low-income
enrollees pay their premiums. What
happens now?
There is no change for consumers for 2017
— their benefits and premiums remain the
same. Health plan premiums for 2017 were
based on the federal government paying
for the subsidies that lower costs for about
650,000 Californians, as they’ve been
paying for the last three and a half years.
The federal government stopping these
payments the last three months of 2017
means health plans will have a big finan-
cial loss — over $180 million. The bigger
issue is what happens in 2018. In Califor-
ni