- Lawmakers to Give Bipartisanship a Try on Obamacare The Hill by Jessie Hellmann — The Senate will take a new approach to Obamacare next week — bipartisanship. Following the stunning defeat of the GOP’s repeal bill, the Senate Health Committee will turn to passing bipartisan legislation aimed at shoring up insurance markets for 2018. The odds are against bipartisanship — particularly when it comes to Obamacare.
- Trump Administration Wants to Stabilize Health Markets but Won’t Say How The New York Times by Robert Pear — A Trump administration official said Wednesday that the administration wanted to stabilize health insurance markets, but refused to say if the government would promote enrollment this fall under the Affordable Care Act or pay for the activities of counselors who help people sign up for coverage. The official also declined to say whether the administration would continue paying subsidies to insurance companies to compensate them for reducing deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for low-income people. Without the subsidies, insurers say, they would sharply increase premiums. The administration, the official suggested, will do the minimum necessary to comply with the law, which Mr. Trump has called “an absolute disaster” and threatened to let collapse.
- Bipartisan Group of Governors Calls on Congress to Shore Up Elements of Affordable Care Act The Washington Post by Amy Goldstein — A bipartisan group of governors is trying to jump-start efforts to strengthen private insurance under the Affordable Care Act, urging Congress to take prompt steps to stabilize marketplaces created by law while giving states more freedom from its rules. In a blueprint issued Thursday, the eight governors ask House and Senate leaders of both parties to take several steps to reverse the rising rates and dwindling choices facing many of the 10 million Americans who buy health plans on their own through ACA marketplaces. Specifically, the state leaders say Congress should devote money for at least two years toward “cost-sharing subsidies” that the 2010 health-care law promises to pay ACA insurers to offset deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses for lower-income customers. The House sued the Obama administration over the subsidies’ legality, and President Trump has repeatedly suggested that he might halt the payments — sending tremors through insurance companies in the marketplaces.
- Governors' Market Stabilization Proposal May Clash with New GOP Repeal Bid Modern Healthcare by Harris Meyer —Two healthccare trains may be headed for a collision in Congress next month, as a bipartisan group of governors and three Senate Republicans push clashing visions of how to fix the Affordable Care Act. But it's unclear whether Republicans and Democrats will be able to agree on any bill — or whether President Donald Trump will sign one — before the Sept. 27 deadline for insurers to decide whether to offer individual-market plans in 2018. Plus, the involvement of only two Republicans in the governors' proposal —Kasich and Nevada's Brian Sandoval, both considered moderates — may signal to congressional Republicans that the proposal does not have the support of conservative GOP governors.