Congress must shore up insurance markets
if Obamacare repeal fails: McConnell
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[July 07, 2017]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate
Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Thursday that Congress must
act to shore up private health insurance markets if it fails to repeal
Obamacare, comments seen as providing a pathway to a bipartisan deal to
fix the health system.
Speaking at a luncheon in his home state of Kentucky, McConnell said:
"If my side is unable to agree on an adequate replacement, then some
kind of action with regard to the private health insurance market must
occur," the Associated Press reported.
"No action is not an alternative," McConnell was quoted as saying.
"We've got the insurance markets imploding all over the country,
including in this state."
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer welcomed McConnell's comments as
a possible opening that could help achieve a bipartisan solution to fix
problems with former President Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare law,
dubbed Obamacare.
"It is encouraging that Senator McConnell today acknowledged that the
issues with the (health insurance) exchanges are fixable and opened the
door to bipartisan solutions to improve our healthcare system," Schumer
said in a statement.
"Democrats are eager to work with Republicans to stabilize the markets
and improve the law," he added.
Many of the individual health insurance markets established under
Obamacare have struggled, hurt by an unfavorable balance of sick and
healthy customers, and some insurers have pulled out because of
uncertainty on whether the government will continue to fund cost-sharing
subsidies to help individuals pay premiums.
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks at a Harden County
Republican party fundraiser in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, U.S., June
30, 2017. REUTERS/Bryan Woolston
Republicans have been fighting to repeal Obama's signature piece of
domestic legislation since it was first approved. President Donald
Trump and Republicans in Congress made repeal a central campaign
promise last year.
But efforts to replace the healthcare law this year have run into
difficulties. The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed a
replacement bill in May.
After the Congressional Budget Office estimated that 23 million
people would lose insurance coverage under the House plan, the
Senate made clear it would write its own bill rather than voting on
the House measure.
The Senate unveiled its healthcare measure in late June. That
measure's fate was uncertain after the CBO predicted that under it
15 million people would lose health insurance in 2018, with the
number growing to 22 million as a result of cuts to the Medicaid
program for the poor and disabled that would take place in 2025.
At least one Republican senator publicly opposed the bill and others
were critical of it. McConnell can only afford to lose two
Republicans from his 52-seat majority in the 100-seat Senate and
still pass the measure.
(Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Eric Beech and Leslie
Adler)
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