HEALTHCARE/OBAMACARE(ACA)/POLITICS: “A hearing that unfolded Wednesday [9-6-17] in a Senate office building marked a first on Capitol Hill in seven years: a bipartisan discussion on ways to repair, not repeal, the Affordable Care Act.
Convened by U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.), chairman of the Senate health committee, the hearing was the first of four such gatherings on options to stabilize the 2010 law’s insurance marketplaces, where people purchase insurance who don’t get it through work.
Mr. Alexander’s proposal, laid out at the beginning of Wednesday’s hearing, would formally authorize subsidy payments to insurers and loosen requirements governing the law’s state waivers.
Mr. Alexander hopes to pass legislation with the panel’s top Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, before the end of the month, when insurers must sign contracts to participate in next year’s markets.
If Mr. Alexander succeeds, it would mark the first major bipartisan action on health care following seven years of partisan conflict over the health-care law that was championed by former President Barack Obama, a Democrat. It must first overcome stiff opposition from some Republicans, who view the subsidies as bailouts propping up a failing law.”
-Michelle Hackman, “Senators Discuss Bipartisan Approach to Repair Obamacare,” The Wall Street Journal online, Sept. 6, 2017 05:53pm