As state attorneys general on Tuesday won their motion to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the legality of insurer subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, a U.S. business group also urged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to keep the subsidies in a letter sent last month.

In a letter to the Health and Human Services Department dated July 12, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — in response to request for comments on reducing regulatory burdens in the Federal Register — stated that while the chamber shares the department's goals, including stabilizing the individual and small group health insurance markets, “HHS should make a firm commitment to pay the CSRs [cost-sharing reductions] until additional legislative relief can provide necessary certainty.” The Trump administration has threatened to cut off the subsidies if Congress does not enact repeal of the ACA.

The letter from the organization representing big and small businesses notes that “the uncertainty as to whether and for how long the government will make these CSR payments is creating tremendous volatility in the individual insurance market, which is causing premiums to further increase and insurers to withdraw from the individual market.”