- Trump Tells Senate to Fix Taxes — Not Obamacare Politico by Jennifer Haberkorn and Adam Cancryn — President Donald Trump on Tuesday steered Senate Republicans toward tax reform and away from health care, pushing off any deal to fund controversial Obamacare subsidies to the end of the year at best. Trump joined Senate Republicans at their weekly policy lunch but gave no direction on what he wants to see in a health care bill. He praised Sen. Lamar Alexander's (R-Tenn.) work on a bipartisan deal meant to stabilize the Obamacare markets, but his emphasis on taxes led senators in the room to believe Trump doesn't want a stand-alone Obamacare vote anytime soon...Without a clear directive from the president, Republicans are still debating whether to work with Democrats to fund Obamacare's "cost-sharing" program, which helps low-income people pay their out-of-pocket medical bills.
- CBO: Bipartisan Bill to Stabilize Insurance Would Reduce Budget Deficit Modern Healthcare by Harris Meyer — The bipartisan Senate bill to stabilize the individual insurance market and fund cost-sharing reduction payments to insurers would reduce the federal budget deficit by $3.8 billion from 2018 to 2027, the Congressional Budget Office reported Wednesday. The bill, authored by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate health committee, and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), senior Democrat on the committee, would fund the payments for 2018 and 2019.
- U.S. Lawmakers Will Not Tackle Health Care This Year, Ryan Says Reuters by Richard Cowan and Doina Chiacu — Republican lawmakers will not take up a bipartisan plan to stabilize Obamacare insurance markets or try again to repeal and replace the law this year, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday, signaling his party was shelving the matter until the 2018 U.S. congressional election year. "I think that is something we should do next year," Ryan said in an interview with Reuters when asked about prospects of the House passing a bipartisan bill that would reinstate federal subsidies to private insurers to help lower-income people buy medical coverage through the Affordable Care Act.