Trump pullback from bipartisan health care fix gives Washington whiplash

A bipartisan plan to shore up Obamacare markets that President Trump expressed support for just days ago stalled suddenly yesterday when he reversed course and slammed the measure as a bailout for insurance companies.

According to a June report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, headquartered in D.C., the uninsured rate for nonelderly Blacks dropped more than one-third between 2013 and 2016, from 18.9 percent to 11.7 percent. “So there is an emerging, encouraging consensus, and we’ll see how far it goes”, he told reporters.

Republican Senate sources say the president is anxious that insurers could take advantage of that money flow, but Senator Alexander insists the bill has provisions to police them.

“I think, uh, he’s evolving”, Sen. But even some Republican governors – such as John Kasich of OH – might be amenable to a plan that prevents chaos on their states’ exchanges. “It was just introduced”.

Behind the scenes, however, the bill’s sponsors Sens.

On Tuesday, Trump appeared to embrace the deal struck by Republican Senator Lamar Alexander and Democratic Senator Patty Murray as “a short-term solution so that we don’t have this very unsafe little period”, apparently referring to possible premium spikes in the wake of his recent decision to cut off subsidy payments to insurance companies.

The plan for now is to play the long game on the bill.

“This will give states meaningful flexibility”, Alexander said Tuesday in discussing the forthcoming bill. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer today while speaking with reporters called the president the obstructionist-in-chief for not being able to stick to a position, as Schumer put it.

Alexander and Murray shook hands on their agreement this week after months of intermittent talks.

“Nothing is final until it’s actually in a vehicle driving down Pennsylvania Avenue for a signature”.

But Alexander stressed that the legislation would not allow states to change the essential benefits now required, or let insurers discriminate against consumers with pre-existing conditions.

Yet, Democrats are ranting that Trump’s regulatory changes are sabotaging the Affordable Care Act. Insurance companies anticipated that the president would cut the subsidies and they increased their premiums for most or all Obamacare policies, including the silver plans, the ones people must buy to receive the extra help with cost sharing.

For now, numerous hurdles are on the Republican side.

You can either believe the CSR payments are a boon to ordinary people or an unconscionable giveaway to insurance companies (in reality, neither is true). Patty Murray, D-Wash., the committee’s ranking member, which they introduced Tuesday at their parties’ respective weekly policy luncheons.

The deal is a response to President Trump’s recent executive actions.

The ACA tried to make it easier to buy coverage, and Congress did that in two ways.

No Republican voted for Obamacare in 2010 when a Democratic-controlled Congress narrowly passed it, with many Republican lawmakers calling it government over-reach because of the tax provision. But, it’s a tough political pill to swallow. The Affordable Care Act requires insurers to provide the reductions, but federal reimbursement is under a legal cloud.

The measure would still have to clear the House, where Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and many conservatives have been cold to the idea, and win Trump’s signature. That’s the message for millions who don’t get health coverage at work and, until now, faced two dismal options: going without insurance or paying ObamaCare’s soaring premiums.

Murray and Alexander are expected to officially release the bill with a list of bipartisan co-sponsors on Thursday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has been non-committal about the plan.

Many Republicans, who since January have controlled the White House, Senate and House, are reluctant to support a measure that could be viewed as helping Obamacare after having failed to deliver any significant legislative achievements this year. “At some point, it’s going to be attached to something right?”