Republicans Determined to Act on Health Care But How?
Last week, a Republican-only effort to scrap key portions of the Affordable Care Act died by one vote in the U.S. Senate, opening the door a crack for a bipartisan effort to patch up the nation's ailing health care system. But getting a bill that can garner a filibuster-proof 60 votes may prove easier said than done – and the clock is ticking.
When senators return from their August break, a bipartisan hearing is planned to question insurance commissioners, patients, insurance companies, governors and healthcare experts. Members of both parties say the emerging effort is already getting off to a better start than Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's aborted attempt, crafted behind closed doors with input from only a small handful of his male, Republican colleagues.
"I hope that we have a common ground of understanding of what is creating the increase costs and premiums," Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the health committee, tells Rolling Stone.
Lawmakers are short on time though. The insurance industry signs new contracts with the federal government on September 27th that will dictate what they sell on the Obamacare exchanges, and there's a lot lawmakers hope to accomplish in that brief window.
"I hope to get a consensus on how to stabilize the individual market, get premiums down, keep insurance companies in the individual market so people can buy affordable insurance during the year 2018," Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Republican chair of the health committee, tells Rolling Stone. "It needs to be limited. Bipartisan. And it needs to be able to go into effect before the end of September so the insurance companies can see it. And then I would expect them to lower their prices as a result of the certainty that Congress has provided."
In the House of Representatives, a bipartisan group of 40 lawmakers are floating a plan to immediately plug some of the most glaring holes in the current system, like creating a stability fund so states can help drive down the costs of premiums, along with providing about $7 billion to insurance companies – called cost sharing – to subsidize the poorest Americans who are on Obamacare.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/health-care-reform-republicans-want-to-act-but-unsure-how-w495552?utm_source=rsnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=080217_16
