Congress Working Across The Aisle To Shore Up Health Insurance Markets

Aug. 02--With the Republican effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act stalled in the Senate, across-the-aisle efforts are unfolding in both chambers of Congress aimed at shoring up the nation's health insurance markets.

In the House, a bipartisan group of 40 legislators, including Lehigh Valley Congressman Charlie Dent, has unveiled a five-point proposal for reducing the uncertainty among insurers over how their companies may be affected by ongoing debate over the ACA, or Obamacare. And in the Senate, lawmakers who lead the chamber's health committee plan hearings next month on how to stabilize the law.

"I'm hoping we can reframe the debate on health care," Dent told reporters Tuesday, describing the House plan released Monday as one that would make incremental changes that "both sides can walk away feeling pretty good about."

A veteran lawmaker and co-leader of the centrist Tuesday Group, Dent has emerged under President Donald Trump's tenure as a critical but measured House voice, and has advocated for a bipartisan health care approach since announcing his opposition to the House GOP plan to replace Obamacare.

The House effort has been underway for several weeks, with rank-and-file, centrist members of the Problem Solvers Caucus meeting evenings to hash out a list of policies to address problems within the individual insurance markets.

The five-point plan would ensure funding for o-called "cost-sharing subsidies" to insurers, which are intended to hold down out-of-pocket costs for the poorest customers buying insurance on the Obamacare exchanges.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to cut off those monthly payments, which total $7 billion this year. The loss of that funding could dramatically affect premium prices in Pennsylvania: Monthly premiums for plans on the state's individual market are set to go up by 8.8 percent next year, but health coverage providers told the state Insurance Department they would request to raise those costs by roughly 20 percent if the subsidies disappear.

The House proposal also would repeal the medical device tax; change the employer mandate so companies with at least 500, not 50, employees must offer insurance coverage; create a stability fund for states to hold down premiums or limit insurer losses; and give states more flexibility, including the ability for compacts to sell insurance across state lines.

Five Pennsylvania Republicans -- Dent, whose district includes Lehigh County and part of Northampton County; Ryan Costello of Chester County; Lloyd Smucker of Lancaster County; G.T. Thompson from Centre County; and Brian Fitzpatrick of Bucks County -- have expressed support for the proposal.

The proposal comes as House lawmakers are beginning their monthlong August recess, and the Senate is wrapping up its schedule before also leaving Washington for several weeks. It's not in bill form.

Dent said he's talked with several senators about the proposal. And leaders of the Problem Solvers Caucus -- Tom Reed, a New York Republican, and Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat -- praised the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for announcing Tuesday it will hold hearings next month.

Those hearings will involve Democratic and Republican senators, as well as insurance commissioners, patients, governors, insurance companies and health care experts, according to Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who chairs the health panel. He said that without congressional action before Sept. 27, when insurers sign contracts to sell individual insurance plans in the Obamacare exchanges in 2018, millions of Americans will have no option or only unaffordable options for health insurance.

"There are a number of issues with the American health care system, but if your house is on fire, you want to put out the fire, and the fire in this case is the individual health insurance market," Alexander said. "Both Republicans and Democrats agree on this."

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who serves on that committee, said he'll meet with some of his Republican colleagues in the coming days, and that he hopes the committee can discuss the cost-sharing payments, which Alexander urged the Trump administration to continue approving while the panel works on legislation.

"I've also put forth ideas to increase the tax credits that families receive to pay for health care and introduce a Medicare-like public option that will allow more choice and competition," Casey said in a statement.

But for the efforts to make it to a vote, legislators will need support from each chamber's Republican leaders.

A spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan told The Associated Press that he remains focused on repealing and replacing Obamacare.

lolson@mcall.com

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