Connecticut joined with 17 other states and the District of Columbia in filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s decision to abruptly stop making health care cost-sharing reduction (CSR) subsidy payments required by the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) – a move that will put health coverage for more than 6 million Americans at risk while increasing costs, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Attorney General George Jepsen said in recent statements.

Trump “cannot actually reform or improve our health care system, so instead he is seeking to sabotage the Affordable Care Act and health care in this country piece by piece, this time by ending the CSR payments,” Jepsen said in a statement. “Withholding these subsidies is a direct hit to many families who will see their health care costs rise – and, make no mistake, his action will significantly increase costs for many Connecticut consumers. I intend to aggressively fight this action on behalf of the Connecticut families that rely on these subsidies.”

The ACA’s mandatory cost-sharing reduction payments help working families access more affordable health care coverage by assisting individuals with annual incomes between $11,880 and $29,700 enroll in health plans with lower deductibles, copayments or coinsurance, reducing their out-of-pocket costs.

While the Connecticut Insurance Department recently approved rates for 2018 that assumed no CSR payments would be made, and designed the rates in a way that will make some families eligible for tax credits that will offset the higher premiums, many will not be eligible for those tax credits.

This is the second time that Jepsen and state attorneys general have sought to defend the subsidies and protect affordable health care coverage for millions of Americans. In May of this year, Jepsen and 15 of his colleagues intervened in House v. Price, the appeal now pending in the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to defend the subsidies against a lawsuit brought by Congressional Republicans.