Axios

There's growing frustration in the health insurance industry with the way the Trump administration is managing the Affordable Care Act, senior insurance officials described to the LA Times. Here's what they found out:

• Some insurance companies are planning dramatic premium hikes for Obamacare or exiting the Obamacare marketplaces.
• State insurance regulators are realizing they can't depend on the Trump administration to do what's needed to run a stable market, like paying for subsidies or enforcing the individual mandate.

Why it matters: Obamacare IS collapsing, but it's not collapsing on it's own as Trump claimed it would. It's collapsing because of Trump. Blue Shield of California CEO Paul Markovich told LA Times, "All this uncertainty is not helpful."

Here's a twist in the push to stabilize the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges: The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has sent a letter to President Trump's administration that asks for the quick, continued funding of the cost-sharing reduction subsidies that help lower out-of-pocket costs for low-income people.

Why this matters: Trump and congressional Republicans love to tout the rights of states. And now the group representing the leaders of state insurance departments is urging them to keep the subsidies they have threatened to cut off. This puts Republicans in a spot where they either swallow their pride and fund an ACA program, or they selectively ignore the requests of a group that makes up the foundation of their policymaking.

The Department of Justice is intervening in a second whistleblower lawsuit that alleges UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurance and services company in the country, has defrauded the Medicare Advantage insurance program by exaggerating people's medical diagnoses to obtain more federal dollars.

Why this matters: These lawsuits have some explosive allegations and threaten a company that dominates a growing and lucrative Medicare industry. In addition, the Center for Public Integrity and a federal watchdog agency have reported numerous instances of insurers manipulating a Medicare patient's "risk score" to get more money.

The bottom line: This will be one of the most closely watched federal court cases in health care considering billions of taxpayer dollars are on the line.