The federal government has $800 million left over in its reimbursement fund for health insurers this year, which could mean insurance marketplaces under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act require less financial support than expected, according to The Hill.
Here are five things to know about the reinsurance fund:
1. A key component of the PPACA, the reinsurance program creates a funding pool to help insurers pay for medical bills that exceed a certain threshold. The program is only intended for the early years of the health reform's rollout, when a healthy risk pool is in the process of being established.
2. The Obama administration collected a total of $8.7 billion in payments in 2014 and paid out a total of $7.9 billion in its reinsurance program. The leftover money will carry over into the next two years, according to the report.
3. Under the law, most of the payments are distributed during the first year of the exchange, as there is a greater chance there will be more sick than healthy customers, according to the report.
4. Nearly all of the 484 health insurers that contributed to the pool will receive some money back, and about 50 plans did not qualify.
5. With the excess money from 2014, health insurers can divvy up a $1.8 billion pool of reinsurance money through 2016, according to the report.