While congressional efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act are on hold, President Donald Trump’s administration is still debating whether to cut off payments to insurance companies that have kept premiums affordable for millions of Americans who buy coverage through the individual marketplace. The subsidies benefit over half of the people who bought health insurance through the markets this year, and insurers have warned that premiums would rise dramatically without the subsidies. Negassi Tesfamichael and Paul Demko at Politico report:

“We said from the very beginning that we would look at that on a month by month basis,” said Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney on CNN. “That has not changed.” But more Republican lawmakers, fresh off the collapse of the Senate’s Obamacare repeal effort last week, are now looking to repair the 2010 health care law. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who chairs the key Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, has been among many lawmakers who have called on the White House to continue making the payments, which are worth $7 billion this year.

Closer to home, letter writer Paul Spillman reminds The Advocate’s readers that the ACA sprung from conservative principles that were first adopted by then-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Read the full letter here.

But when Obama and the Democrats adopted the policy in a vain hope for bipartisan support the entire conservative movement begin to wallow in intellectual dishonesty. They called their own market-based approach socialized medicine. They called their own plan a government takeover of health care. They embraced every stupid hysteria anyone could think up. Remember death panels?

Budget imbalance

Louisiana may have finished the 2017 fiscal year with an imbalanced budget, thanks to $36 million in financing that is tied up in various legal disputes. As the AP’s Melinda Deslatte reports, the money was earmarked for health, public safety, child and family services, but will sit in escrow until two lawsuits over temporary taxes are resolved:

The maneuver is reminiscent of the piecemeal financing used during former Gov. Bobby Jindal’s tenure, budgeting tactics that drew widespread criticism for creating uncertainty. Edwards spokesman Richard Carbo defended the use of the escrow dollars and suggested the governor’s approach to budgeting was different from Jindal, with plans that “are honest and free of gimmicks.” Carbo said the administration is confident “funds used to cover supplemental expenses will be made available to the state over the course of the fiscal year.” Obligations tied to escrow money not moved by the mid-August close of books shift to the current budget year, with uncertainty about whether they will all be met.

The problem with Graham-Cassidy
Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy continues to press forward with his plan to dismantle the existing Medicaid program in favor of block grants to states. The scheme, which Cassidy pitched to President Trump earlier this week, draws heavy criticism from the Gambit newspaper:

Cassidy/Graham is complicated, but the biggest change would be block-granting money to the states for them to spend on health care as they choose, on the theory that states will spend it more wisely than the feds. That’s a dicey proposition — imagine federal health care block grants being spent by former Gov. Bobby Jindal. Their plan also would end block grant funds entirely by 2026, put a per-capita cap on Medicaid funds, and eliminate both individual and employer insurance mandates.  The end game here is unclear. By 2026, when the federal dollars dry up completely and states must provide all health care funding, Cassidy and most of those who might vote on his legislation will be long gone from office. This much is clear: The ACA has been the best thing to happen to Louisiana health outcomes in decades. If Cassidy can’t improve upon it, he should turn his hand to something else in Washington.

Wages are finally recovering

It’s taken the better part of a decade, but new data shows that wages for American workers with a high school degree or less have finally climbed back to their pre-recession levels. Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) says the upward trend is due in part to the fact that many states are raising their minimum wage.

It is particularly striking that the wages for workers with less than a high school degree or just a high school degree rose faster over the last year than any other group at 1.9 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively. This phenomenon is likely related to the disproportionate increases among lower wage workers. I pointed out earlier this week the likely relationship between strong wage growth at the 10th percentile and the significant number of state-level minimum wage increases that took effect at the beginning of the year. Workers with some college still have averages wages lower than in 2007 and lower than in 2000 (not shown). As the economy continues on the road to full employment, workers across the board should see better wage growth.

Number of the Day

39,052– number of Louisianans who are employed at firms owned by immigrants. (Source: New American Economy)