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Article snippet: WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is giving health insurance companies more time to calculate price increases for 2018 because of uncertainty caused by the president’s threat to cut off crucial subsidies paid to insurers on behalf of millions of low-income people. Federal health officials said the deadline for insurers to file their rate requests would be extended by nearly three weeks, to Sept. 5. The extension was announced in a memorandum that insurers received on Friday from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs the federal insurance marketplace and regulates insurers under the Affordable Care Act. It was the clearest evidence to date that the politics of health care in Washington could disrupt planning for 2018. Insurers are struggling to decide whether to participate in the marketplace next year and, if so, how much to charge. In addition to the usual price increases to keep up with medical inflation, many insurers are demanding higher rates because of the possibility that President Trump might take away the subsidies known as cost-sharing reduction payments. The subsidies compensate insurers for reducing deductibles, co-payments and other out-of-pocket medical costs for low-income people. Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened to cut off the payments as a way to force Democrats to negotiate over the future of the Affordable Care Act. The president can stop the payments because a federal judge ruled last year that the Obama adm... Link to the full article to read more