More than a dozen Republican senators are shifting gears to figure out how to repeal Obamacare’s insurance regulations.
The 14-member Senate working group had been expected to discuss the law’s taxes when it meets Tuesday. But a source familiar with the meeting told the Washington Examiner that they instead will focus on Obamacare’s insurance regulations.
The change comes after a meeting last week on what to do about the law’s insurance regulations yielded little progress. The regulations mandate what an insurer that wants to sell plans on the law’s exchanges on the individual market have to do.
Mandates include covering people with pre-existing conditions and other regulations such as prohibiting lifetime limits on insurance plans.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., reportedly suggested several ideas on what to do, including letting Obamacare’s subsidies and regulations continue through 2020, after the next presidential election, and provide $15 billion more to shore up the individual market.
That suggestion caused a rift among some of the senators.
Leading conservatives Sens. Mike Lee, of Utah, and Ted Cruz, of Texas, pushed back against a long delay, worried about waiting until after the next presidential election to pull back Obamacare. But Sens. John Thune of South Dakota, John Cornyn of Texas and Rob Portman of Ohio were more sympathetic, according to several sources at the last meeting.
The insurer mandates were major sticking points in the House when it debated the American Health Care Act, which narrowly passed the chamber this month.
Conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus say they believe the mandates are driving up premiums, but centrists opposed repealing them because of concerns about coverage.
So a compromise was reached in which states may opt out of some insurance mandates, namely the price control community rating, which prevents insurers from charging sicker people more money and covering essential health benefits such as maternity care and hospitalization.
The Senate, however, has largely decided to scrap the House bill and move in its own direction. An updated estimate of the House bill’s impact on spending and insurance coverage is expected next week from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The agency said in its assessment of the original bill before it was changed several times, that 24 million people would have no insurance coverage by 2026.
The Senate hasn’t set any timetable for its own bill. House Speaker Paul Ryan recently told a Wisconsin radio show that he hopes the Senate completes its work in about two months, which would be around the time Congress breaks for its month-long August recess.
But Ryan cautioned that he doesn’t “try to predict” what the upper chamber does anymore.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is devoting a lot of time to the talks. He has scheduled full GOP conference lunches three times a week to discuss primarily healthcare.
