Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) announced on Monday that starting the week of September 4, the committee will begin hearings to stabilize the individual health insurance market through insurance bailouts and subsidies.
Sen. Alexander admitted that he will work with Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, to make the proposed hearings bipartisan. Alexander will also consult with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) to discuss potential solutions.
Sen. Hatch recently confessed that Senate Republicans remain “too divided” to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Alexander also urged President Donald Trump to continue the cost-sharing payments to insurance companies. Hatch concurred with Alexander, arguing that President Trump should continue the Obamacare insurance known as the cost-sharing reduction program.
“As we prepare for these discussions, I have also urged the president to temporarily continue the cost-sharing reduction payments through September so that Congress can work on a short- term solution for stabilizing the individual market in 2018,” Alexander revealed in a statement.
“Cost-sharing reduction subsidies reduce co-pays and deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs to help low-income Americans who buy their health insurance on the exchanges that would be (those who make under 250 percent of Federal Poverty Level, roughly $30,000 for an individual or $60,000 for a family of four),” the Tennessee senator added.
Senator Alexander also charged, “In my opinion, any solution that Congress passes for a 2018 stabilization package would need to be small, bipartisan and balanced. It should include funding for the cost-sharing reductions, but it also should also include greater flexibility for states in approving health insurance policies.”
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid unveiled in a new report that 1,332 counties in America will only have one health insurer on the Obamacare exchanges. The CS also reported that 40 counties in the country do not have any insurers on the Obamacare marketplaces.
President Donald Trump recently suggested that he will end the Obamacare subsidies and end the congressional exemption for Obamacare.
If ObamaCare is hurting people, & it is, why shouldn't it hurt the insurance companies & why should Congress not be paying what public pays?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2017
Sen. Rand Paul frequently criticized the cost-sharing payments, chastising those who would give money to rich insurance companies rather than Americans who might need Medicaid.
“They take money that they were giving to the poor for health care and give it to the rich who run the insurance companies,” Paul charged.
Sen. Alexander professed that if president trump were to keep the Obamacare insurance subsidies, and if Congress were to pass an insurance bailout package, then insurance premiums might stabilize.
Alexander said, “Now if the president were to approve the continuation of cost-sharing subsidies for August and September, and if Congress in September passed a stabilization plan that includes cost-sharing for one year, it is reasonable to expect that the insurance companies would then lower their rates.”
Sen. Murray released a statement, committing herself to work with Senate HELP Committee Chairman Alexander. Murray said:
This committee will hold hearings beginning the week of September 4th on the actions Congress should take to stabilize and strengthen the individual health insurance market so that Americans will be able to buy insurance at affordable prices in the year 2018. We will hear from state insurance commissioners, patients, governors, health care experts and insurance companies. Committee staff will begin this week working with all of our committee members to prepare for these hearings and discussions.
Sen. Paul concluded, “I was a physician for 20 years before Obamacare and I tell people healthcare sucked before Obamacare, and it sucked worse with Obamacare,” Paul said. “And if we still have the federal government involved in whatever the solution is, it’s going to suck even more.”
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