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 But leftover hard feelings in the wake of the long, partisan
Obamacare wars could poison other issues.
Among them will be a measure to keep federal funding flowing to an
insurance program that helps millions of children and pregnant
women. The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) must be
reauthorized by a vote of Congress by Sept. 30. If that does not
happen, the program is expected to run out of money.
Another issue will be stabilizing the individual insurance market
created under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, former Democratic
President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy achievement. In
recent months, the Trump administration has worked to undermine it
and insurers have raised premiums by double digits or exited the
market.
Republicans in Congress spent six months trying to make good on a
seven-year campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, also a
top campaign promise by President Donald Trump, while Democrats
remained unanimously opposed.
The effort, which inflamed partisanship and exposed deep divisions
within the Republican Party, ended with a dramatic failed Senate
vote in July, leaving the law in place, but damaged.
Reauthorization of CHIP is typically not contentious. The program
has bipartisan support. But lobbyists and industry officials said
that any healthcare effort in Congress could become partisan in this
political climate.
"Anything having to do with healthcare after the process we've gone
through is subject to being controversial," one health industry
lobbyist said last week.
Serving as a backdrop for Congress' deliberations, including
hearings scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, will be Trump and his
Twitter account.
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In several tweets, Trump has chastised lawmakers, sometimes by name,
for failing to deliver on their promise to get rid of Obamacare. If
that continues, already-rocky relations between Trump and fellow
Republicans could worsen.
Several congressional aides, lobbyists and industry officials said
they were skeptical that lawmakers would be able to move past the
bitter months-long Republican push to gut Obamacare and somehow
achieve bipartisan cooperation on healthcare.
The Obamacare markets' problems have worsened amid conflicting
messages from Trump and the Republicans' effort to dismantle the
healthcare law. Republican aides and lobbyists said there was little
appetite to try once more to repeal and replace it.
They said Republicans, controlling the White House, House of
Representatives and Senate, were unlikely to take up the
repeal-and-replace effort for the remainder of 2017.
Trump's administration has moved to undercut Obamacare, slashing its
advertising budget by 90 percent and backing off enforcement of the
so-called individual mandate, the requirement that everyone purchase
insurance or pay a fine.
(Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Matthew Lewis)
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