Another ObamaCare End Run Around Congress

Like the proverbial broken record, the Obama administration is — again — showing its contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law.

The administration has had a proclivity for circumventing Congress when President Obama doesn’t get his way. This time, taxpayers could be on the hook for a bailout of health insurance companies that have lost money through the ObamaCare exchanges.

Recently, the Washington Post reported that the Justice Department is considering tapping the Treasury Department’s Judgment Fund, which is used to pay federal legal claims, to settle with health insurance companies that are suing the administration over financial losses from their participation in ObamaCare.

Congress, however, has prohibited any taxpayer-funded bailout of insurers.

Settling with plaintiffs out of court is a fairly common tactic for this administration. It is known as "sue-and-settle."

A plaintiff, often a special-interest group, will sue the federal government and, behind closed doors and away from public scrutiny, the administration will settle, rather than defend itself, and take an action or agree to promulgate regulations at the heart of the lawsuit.

Meant to be a transitional component of ObamaCare, the "risk-corridors" program redistributes money from profitable health plans to those that run in the red.

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