WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bipartisan deal to stabilize Obamacare by restoring billions of dollars of subsidies to health insurers picked up Republican support in the Senate on Thursday despite President Donald Trump’s opposition.
Republican Senator Lamar Alexander and Democratic Senator Patty Murray formally introduced legislation to shore up the 2010 healthcare law by reviving the federal subsidies to insurers for two years to help lower-income Americans obtain medical coverage.
The two senators announced that the deal now has the support of 12 of the 52 Republicans in the 100-seat Senate, as well as 12 Democrats, and Alexander predicted it could be passed by year’s end.
Trump campaigned for the presidency last year promising to get rid of Obamacare, the signature legislative achievement of former President Barack Obama, but his fellow Republicans who control Congress have failed to repeal and replace the law.
Trump initially on Tuesday indicated support for the Alexander-Murray agreement but reversed himself, with the White House saying the president does not support it in its current form. Trump said on Wednesday “I can never support bailing out” insurers.
The bipartisan measure has broad support among Democrats, but had just seven Republicans on record supporting it only a day earlier.
Alexander told reporters that he thought the legislation “is likely to become law in one form or another before the year is over.” But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not said he would bring the bill to the floor, and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday signaled his opposition.
Lobbyists and congressional aides closely following the matter said the legislation could make it onto the Senate floor tucked inside a bigger “must-pass” bill that Congress needs to act on in December, such as a broad spending measure to prevent a federal government shutdown.
The agreement would also would give 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.
Trump has called the subsidies a government giveaway that has enriched private insurers. Insurers say they do not profit from the subsidies, but pass them on directly to consumers to reduce deductibles, co-payments and other out-of-pocket medical expenses for low-income people.
If all 46 Senate Democrats and two independents back it as expected, the support of the 12 Republicans means the bill has the 60 votes needed to reach the super-majority required to pass most legislation in the Senate, if McConnell is willing to allow it to come to a vote.
Alexander and Murray both said that their legislation does not bail out insurers. Alexander also noted that House Republicans, in a Obamacare repeal and replace bill they passed in May, also would continue the subsidy payments for two years.
Alexander said that Trump has called him four times in the last 10 days on this subject, including a Saturday night call when he was at a restaurant and “my dinner got cold.” He urged the president to support the initiative.
Obamacare, formally called the Affordable Care Act, extended healthcare insurance to 20 millions people but Republicans see it as government interference in Americans’ healthcare.
Reporting by Richard Cowan, Amanda Becker and Yasmeen Abutaleb; Editing by James Dalgleish and Alistair Bell
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