With the failure of the ACA repeal and replace, straight repeal, and skinny repeal, a bipartisanship group of 40 House members, led by Tom Reed (R–NY) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), released a plan of Obamacare solutions to stabilize the health insurance exchanges. Their plan seeks to ensure funding for cost-sharing reductions (CSRs), eradicate the employer mandate, build a federal stability fund for individuals with high cost medical conditions, remove the medical device tax, and allow for more state innovation. Vox notes that the plan contains no component that would help expand coverage to the 28 million Americans who remain uninsured.
On August 1st, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) announced that starting Sept. 4 the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee will hold bipartisanship hearings on ways to stabilize the ACA marketplaces for 2018. Their goal is to act by Sept. 27 right before insurers must sign contracts to sell insurance plans on the federal marketplace for next year. Senators recognize that stabilizing next year’s marketplace is only the first step towards a “more robust individual insurance market.”
“Any solution that Congress passes for a 2018 stabilization package would need to be small, bipartisan and balanced,” said Alexander.