WASHINGTON--Two U.S. senators on Tuesday announced a bipartisan breakthrough to shore up Obamacare for two years by reviving federal subsidies for health insurers that President Donald Trump planned to scrap, and the president voiced support for the deal.
The agreement worked out by Republican Senator Lamar Alexander and Democratic Senator Patty Murray would meet some Democratic objectives, including a revival of the subsidies for Obamacare and restoring $106 million in funding for a federal program that helps people enroll in insurance plans.
In exchange, Republicans would get more flexibility for states to offer a wider variety of health insurance plans while maintaining the requirement that sick and healthy people be charged the same rates for coverage.
The Trump administration said last week it would stop paying billions of dollars to insurers to help lower-income Americans pay medical expenses, part of the Republican president's effort to dismantle Obamacare, former Democratic President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law. Trump hoped to make good on his campaign promise to dismantle Obamacare when he took office in January, with Republicans, who pledged for seven years to scrap the law, controlling Congress. But he has been frustrated with their failure to pass legislation to repeal and replace it and is now backing a plan that could keep Obamacare in place at least until the 2020 presidential campaign starts heating up.
The law, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, extended health insurance coverage to 20 million Americans, but Republicans say it is intrusive and ineffective. "This takes care of the next two years. After that, we can have a full-fledged debate on where we go long-term on healthcare," Alexander said.
It is unclear whether the agreement can make it through Congress. Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, said it had "broad support" among senators in his party, but it was harder to gauge possible support among Republicans.
Moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins, who helped sink earlier Obamacare repeal legislation, voiced backing for the new plan, but conservative Republicans may be less welcoming.
Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, threw his weight behind the effort. In an interview with Reuters, Sanders said Alexander was a “well-respected figure” known for bipartisanship and that the Tennessee senator’s reputation would help propel the legislation through the Senate.
The willingness of Sanders, a liberal champion, to offer his support of a deal with Republicans that could allow states to change some Obamacare requirements provided a boost to the Alexander-Murray effort. "We are going to overturn what Trump is trying to do,” Sanders said.
Schumer urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring the plan to a vote on the Senate floor and urged the House of Representatives to take it up then as quickly as possible so Trump can sign it.
