[{"innerBlocks":[],"name":"core\/freeform","postId":3116,"blockType":{"name":"core\/freeform","keywords":[],"attributes":{"content":{"type":"string","source":"raw"},"lock":{"type":"object"}},"providesContext":[],"usesContext":[],"selectors":[],"supports":{"className":false,"customClassName":false,"reusable":false},"styles":[],"variations":[],"apiVersion":3,"title":"Classic","description":"Use the classic WordPress editor.","category":"text"},"originalContent":"(Bloomberg)--Senate Republicans are expressing a willingness to consider a bipartisan approach to strengthening the individual insurance market under Obamacare, even as President Donald Trump is deciding whether to end payments for it.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Saturday he\u2019d be open to the attempt, which follows the collapse of Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, according to the Associated Press. Republican Senator Thom Tillis said he\u2019d be obligated to consider it.

\u201cWe have got a destabilized market where insurance rates are going to go up 20, 30, 40 percent next year,\u201d Tillis of North Carolina said on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week\u201d on Sunday. \u201cAnything that we can do to prevent that, and the damage that that will have on people who need healthcare, I think is something I have to look at.\u201d

The Senate health committee will begin bipartisan hearings in early September on stabilizing and strengthening the Affordable Care Act\u2019s individual insurance market, Republican Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and top Democrat Patty Murray of Washington said in a joint statement on August 1.

While saying he was open to a bipartisan plan for subsidies, McConnell also said on Saturday there was \u201cstill a chance\u201d to address a repeal and replacement of Obamacare, but that it was quickly becoming unlikely.

Trump has also tweeted to his 35.2 million followers that senators, who are away from Washington for their summer recess, shouldn\u2019t vote on anything else until they\u2019ve completed the effort to revamp President Barack Obama\u2019s signature health law.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said July 30 that \u201cno decision\u2019s been made\u201d on whether to continue key subsidies under the law to health-insurance companies, but that the administration\u2019s job is \u201cto follow the law of the land.\u201d

The payments, called cost-sharing reductions, help insurers offset healthcare costs for low-income Americans. Trump has repeatedly suggested ending the payments as a bargaining tactic to bring Democrats to the negotiating table. The next payment is due on August 21.

\u201cThe cost-sharing reductions over time need to be eliminated,\u201d Tillis said. \u201cBut we can\u2019t just all of the sudden pull the rug out from underneath an industry that has had this in place for about seven years.\u201d

Appearing together on CBS\u2019s \u201cFace the Nation\u201d on Sunday, Republican Governor John Kasich of Ohio and Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado said both parties should work to find a solution.

\u201cRepublicans are going to have to admit that there is a group of people out there who will need help,\u201d Kasich said.

\u201cI think we\u2019ll be surprised at the number of senators that are willing to kind of step back and say, \u2018All right. Let\u2019s roll up our sleeves, and work on a bipartisan basis, and see how far we can go,\u2019 \u201c Hickenlooper said.

Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said \u201cwe do need to stabilize those markets,\u201d but he urged his colleagues to move on to other priorities.

\u201cI really do think we probably ought to turn our attention to debt ceiling and funding the government and tax cuts until we can really get all the parties together,\u201d Johnson said on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union\u201d on Sunday.","saveContent":"(Bloomberg)--Senate Republicans are expressing a willingness to consider a bipartisan approach to strengthening the individual insurance market under Obamacare, even as President Donald Trump is deciding whether to end payments for it.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Saturday he\u2019d be open to the attempt, which follows the collapse of Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, according to the Associated Press. Republican Senator Thom Tillis said he\u2019d be obligated to consider it.

\u201cWe have got a destabilized market where insurance rates are going to go up 20, 30, 40 percent next year,\u201d Tillis of North Carolina said on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week\u201d on Sunday. \u201cAnything that we can do to prevent that, and the damage that that will have on people who need healthcare, I think is something I have to look at.\u201d

The Senate health committee will begin bipartisan hearings in early September on stabilizing and strengthening the Affordable Care Act\u2019s individual insurance market, Republican Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and top Democrat Patty Murray of Washington said in a joint statement on August 1.

Senate Republicans eye bipartisan push for insurer payments

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