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Speaker 1: Now it's time for our Bloomberg Law Report, brought to

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Speaker 1: you by American Arbitration Association, International Trade or Business dispute

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Speaker 1: Resolve Faster with the International Center for Dispute Resolution, the

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Speaker 1: leader in alternative dispute resolution around the world i c

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Speaker 1: d R dot org. Let's get to the legal stories

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Speaker 1: we're watching this morning with Steve Podusk in the Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: net on one Washington newsroom. The Senators said to begin

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Speaker 1: a full court press next week to get four President

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Speaker 1: Trump's nominees for the federal appeals courts confirmed quickly. A U. S.

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Speaker 1: District court says five hospitals challenging Medicare payment regulations should

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Speaker 1: not have to make an extra trip back to a

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Speaker 1: Health and Human Services Review board to continue their appeal.

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Speaker 1: The court noted that appeal would be sent back to

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Speaker 1: federal court anyway, and the House narrowly adopted a budget resolution,

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Speaker 1: But a lingering obstacle to overhauling the U. S. Tax

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Speaker 1: code remains whether or how to limit a federal tax

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Speaker 1: break that benefits high tax states. Bloomberg Law everything you need,

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Speaker 1: all on on legal research platform, including guidance analysis and

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Market Intelligence. Find out more at Bloomberg Law dot

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Speaker 1: com and now on other legal news. Let's take a

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Speaker 1: look at a decision by a federal judge to temporarily

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Speaker 1: block the White House from ending cost sharing reduction payments

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Speaker 1: to health insures, which were put in place under the

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Speaker 1: Affordable Care Act. For more on this story, Bloomberg Law

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Speaker 1: hosts June Grusso and Gregg Store speak to Bloomberg Intelligence.

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Speaker 1: Senior Government analyst Brian Rye tell us a little bit first,

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Speaker 1: just about these payments, what they are, what they're what

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Speaker 1: they're designed to do. Sure, these are cs are cost

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Speaker 1: sharing reduction payments that are mandated under the a c A.

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Speaker 1: And these are different from the tax credits that lower

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Speaker 1: income individuals can use to pay for their premiums. These

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Speaker 1: CSR payments are intended to help those uh, those lower

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Speaker 1: income individuals pay their out of pocket expenses, their co pays,

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Speaker 1: co insurance deductibles, those things, and that at play here

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Speaker 1: is the fact that insurance companies have to make those

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Speaker 1: payments to lower income individuals on silver plans under the

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Speaker 1: a c A. What's not so certain is whether or

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Speaker 1: not the government is able to reimburse the insurance companies

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Speaker 1: for those payments, and that's at the heart of this lawsuit. Brian,

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Speaker 1: what was the judges reasoning in refusing to restore the subsidies.

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Speaker 1: I think the reasoning had been that a this wasn't

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Speaker 1: necessarily a new issue. The threat that the Trump administration

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Speaker 1: would terminate these payments had been out there for for

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Speaker 1: several months, and several states, including California, who had taken

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Speaker 1: the lead on this lawsuit, had indicated that they were

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Speaker 1: preparing to do this, either by raising premiums to offset

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Speaker 1: the cost or offset the loss of these payments, or

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Speaker 1: otherwise shielding affected individuals. And so I think the judge

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Speaker 1: ruled that, look, um, you've already had a chance to

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Speaker 1: prepare in many states had in fact prepared for that.

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Speaker 1: So there's no need to force the administration to do this. Well, Brian,

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Speaker 1: is the judge right in the sense that if he

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Speaker 1: says that the states have basically already prepared for these payments, uh,

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Speaker 1: not to be made. Uh? Is it the case that

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Speaker 1: these caut sharing the csrs are not really is important

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Speaker 1: to some of the critics of the president have been

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Speaker 1: saying there, you know, it remains to be seen. I

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Speaker 1: think the feeling is that and when the CBO looked

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Speaker 1: at this, they said, there might be a slight, you know,

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Speaker 1: loss of one million people. One million fewer people might

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Speaker 1: have insurance because of some insurers might decide to pull

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Speaker 1: out or other changes in there. But the fact is,

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Speaker 1: if premiums, if the gross premium more to rise, in

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Speaker 1: the value of the tax credits that these um silver

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Speaker 1: planned individuals would get would also rise as well. So

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Speaker 1: there might there shouldn't be a net impact, uh to

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Speaker 1: a lot of the people who you would think would

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Speaker 1: be affected by this. Now, again, if if insurers decided

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Speaker 1: to drop out, if there are other uncertainties and maybe

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Speaker 1: people have fewer choices, then that could obviously have a

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Speaker 1: bit of a problem. But again I think the judge

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Speaker 1: ruled that you've had time to prepare for this, and

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Speaker 1: and so that's enough. That's Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Government Analysis

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Speaker 1: Bryan Roy speaking to Bloomberg Student Russell and Great Store.

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