On the other hand, Minnesota AG Lori Swanson said, “For each dollar Minnesota sends to Washington D.C., we get just 53 cents back. This lawsuit seeks to avoid Minnesota losing hundreds of millions of dollars of payments in the coming years.”
HHS funding cut will cause devastating injury to New York & Minnesota
In the lawsuit, the AGs, their states received emails from the HHS on December 21, 2017. The agency indicated that it will not pay the $266 million due to New York and $32 million due to Minnesota. Those amounts are for the states’ BHP expenses for the first quarter of 2018.
The HHS’ reason was the federal government’s decision in October last year to stop making CSR payments to insurers offering QHPs on exchanges. There is a separate lawsuit challenging that earlier decision.
New York and Minnesota immediately submitted alternative proposals to the HHS to preserve most of the federal funding. However, the agency did not consider their proposals, which replicated the marketplace experience of other states.
