WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday afternoon, The Washington Post reported the Obama administration plans to use taxpayer dollars to bail out ObamaCare insurers through the Treasury Department’s Judgment Fund. U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) released the following statement regarding this news:

“Last week, we learned that 20,000 Nebraskans will lose their health insurance policies because of ObamaCare’s failures. Now, the Obama administration plans to use taxpayer dollars to secretly settle claims with health insurers through the Judgment Fund. My Judgment Fund Transparency Act, which passed the Senate in April, would provide Congress with increased oversight over these backroom deals. These backroom deals should not be happening. My bill would allow the American people to see how their tax dollars are being spent.”

As The Washington Post reported:

“In the waning months of the Obama White House, administration officials are continuing their upbeat portrayal of all aspects of the health-care law, one of President Obama’s main domestic achievements. Behind the scenes, they think that settling these claims — $2.5 billion for 2014 and an as-yet-undisclosed sum for 2015 — is crucial to the exchanges’ well-being at a time when the high cost of covering ACA customers has driven some small insurers out of business and prompted several large ones to defect from marketplaces for the coming year.”

Last week, the Omaha World-Herald reported that Blue Cross Blue Shield will drop out of the ObamaCare marketplace in Nebraska.

Senator Fischer joined Senator Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) in February 2015 to introduce S. 350, The Judgment Fund Transparency Act. The bill would make transactions like these open to public scrutiny. It would also require the Treasury Department to post on a publicly-accessible website the claimant, counsel, agency, fact summary, and payment amount for each claim from the Judgment Fund (unless a law or court order otherwise prohibits the disclosure of such information). The bill was included as a provision in the Senate’s Energy Policy Modernization Act, which passed by a vote of 85 to 12 on April 20, 2016.

Click here to view a pdf of S. 350, The Judgment Fund Transparency Act of 2015.

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