Sen. Patty Murray’s bipartisan health care effort left out of spending bill

March 22--A health care bill crafted by Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., pushed to the back burner when Congress tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act received another blow, this time a victim of budget-bill machinations.

The legislation had another chance but Wednesday Congressional budget negotiators left it out of a spending bill to fund the government through September. Murray and Alexander, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, drew up the legislation after President Trump ended payments reimbursing insurers for supplimenting copayments and deductibles for qualified insurance customers on the individual market. The bill would restore those cost-saving payments to insurers and give states more flexibility to regulate health insurance under the ACA, also known as Obamacare.

Republicans have proposed a provision to withhold funds from insurance plans that provide abortions, which was rejected by Democrats and rankled some other Republicans who had worked on the bill.

In a joint statement issued with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Republican Reps. Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Ryan Costello, R-Pa., Alexander said, "It is disappointing that an opportunity to lower health insurance rates by up to 40 percent for working Americans has turned into a debate about the mechanics of funding for abortion coverage.

"Every year since 1976 , Republicans and Democrats have agreed that federal dollars cannot be used to fund elective abortions, and our proposal does not change that," he said. "It has been my goal since September to include this proposal in the omnibus spending bill and that continues to be my goal."

The push to get the cost-sharing payment bill passed took on greater importance after the tax bill signed into law by Trump late last year eliminated the individual mandate in Obamacare, putting more pressure on insurers working in state health exchanges. The impact of the the loss of the mandate and the cost-sharing payments won't fully be known until insurance companies submit their rates to state insurance commissioners later this spring.

Murray voiced her disappointment Wednesday as it became clear the spending bill would likely move forward without her and Alexander's work.

"I've worked with Chairman Alexander for months in good faith to try to negotiate a bipartisan agreement that would have lowered health care costs for families and restored much-needed stability to health care in our country," Murray said. "It's unfortunate that (Majority Leader) Senator (Mitch) McConnell and (House) Speaker (Paul) Ryan have time and time again rejected bipartisan work on health care in favor of partisan health care politics, and chosen politically-driven show votes over getting a result for families."

Budget negotiators planned to unveil the government-wide spending bill later Wednesday in hopes of passing it before a Friday midnight deadline to avoid a government shutdown.

Lawmakers agreed on the broad outlines of the budget plan last month. The legislation implementing that deal is viewed as possibly one of few bills moving through Congress this year, making it a target for lawmakers and lobbyists seeking to attach their top priorities. -- The Associated Press contributed to this report.

___

(c)2018 The Seattle Times

Visit The Seattle Times at www.seattletimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.