BALTIMORE — Baltimore is among a group of cities suing the Trump Administration in federal court over proposed changes to the Affordable Care Act, which they claim would cause millions of Americans to lose health insurance coverage.
At center of the lawsuit is the health marketplace exchange, where residents can shop for whichever insurance plan best suits them.
These particular plans are heavily subsidized to balance coverage and costs for those with pre-existing conditions compared to younger healthier populations.
The Trump Administration says the current eligibility and enrollment process is filled with waste, fraud and abuse, and therefore decided it needs fixing.
To do that, the White House wants to implement new safeguards such as increased income verification to properly determine eligibility.
Some of significant changes include shortened enrollment periods and a $5 monthly fee for those automatically re-enrolled in plans with zero cost premiums.
Specifically the government is vowing to crackdown on coverage for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients, while also ending benefits for sex change procedures.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services suggest a lot of issues arose during the COVID-19 pandemic when the previous Biden Administration expanded subsidies, allowing for improper enrollments on the taxpayer's dime.
"We found that there are far more enrollees in several states reporting income in a range to qualify for a subsidy that would cover the full cost of a plan than the number of potential enrollees with such income," according to researchers with the Paragon Health Institute. "Overall, we estimate four to five million improper enrollees, with fraudulent expenditures of $15 to $26 billion in 2024 alone."
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott fired back accusing Trump and company of "taking from the middle class and giving to the richest among us."
Nonetheless, the lawsuit could soon be moot if the President's spending bill gets signed into law.
Both the House and Senate versions of the bill tighten eligibility for subsidies and increase verification requirements.
If not, the rules are scheduled to go into effect in late August.
Baltimore is also joined in the lawsuit by the cities of Chicago and Columbus, Ohio.
They filed in the Federal District Court of Maryland, whose mostly Democratic appointed judges have led the charge in delaying Trump's agenda.
In fact, the Administration is in the middle of a lawsuit suing every single sitting Maryland District Court judge over their attempts to prevent deportations of immigrants illegally in the country.
This on top of a Friday Supreme Court ruling that determined universal injunctions issued against the Administration "likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has given to federal courts."
The justices did, however, leave open the question of whether states, not cities, would have standing to seek a court injunction on behalf of their residents. Likewise, class action suits and litigation filed for violations of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) were also not addressed by the high court.
In this particular case, no states appear to be parties, and the plaintiffs do not appear to be seeking class action status as of now. The cities admit the Administration followed the APA, yet they're accused of ignoring public feedback before officially changing the rule.
The full lawsuit can be read below.