The leaders of two major congressional committees reached a deal to fund Obamacare insurer payments in exchange for delaying enforcement of the law’s individual and employer mandates.
The chairmen of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees released the framework of the deal Tuesday.
The deal would fund cost-sharing reduction payments to Obamacare insurers, which reimburse them for lowering out-of-pocket expenses for low-income Obamacare customers, but must include “pro-life protections.” A statement doesn’t elaborate on what those protections are.
In exchange for the payments, the bill would delay enforcement of the mandate that requires people to have insurance or pay a penalty from 2017 to 2021. It also would exempt businesses retroactively from the employer mandate that forces them to provide insurance to employees for 2015 to 2017. Affected businesses wouldn’t have to pay the penalty for not providing insurance from 2015 to 2017.
The deal also would increase the maximum contribution limit for health savings accounts.
It is not clear if the deal could win President Trump’s support or enough backing from Democrats who have been reluctant to nix a bipartisan deal brokered in the Senate.
Trump has been reluctant to pay out the cost-sharing payments to insurers because he considers them a bailout.
Insurers have said they will raise premiums if the payments aren’t made since they still are required by law to reduce out-of-pocket costs for low-income enrollees.
The White House sent out a list of demands to win Trump’s support for a bipartisan deal that would fund the payments, and included on the list are relief from the law’s employer and individual mandates.
Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., released a bipartisan deal last week that has 24 co-sponsors: 12 Democrats and 12 Republicans.
Even though the bill can get 60 votes to pass the Senate, it appears unlikely it would advance further since Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan are opposed to it.
Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, leader of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of Senate Finance, orchestrated Tuesday’s deal.
Alexander said in a statement on the deal he was encouraged by a “growing consensus that Congress should fund the cost-sharing reduction payments for two more years.”
