A leading GOP senator wants to create a “rescue plan” to aid Obamacare customers until a series of reforms are passed that will ultimately kill the law.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., outlined on the Senate floor a plan that would keep Obamacare in place at first instead of it being immediately repealed but would give states more power to run their individual marketplaces, which are insurance markets for people who don’t get coverage through work. The rescue plan would be in effect until the Senate passes a series of reforms that would kill Obamacare.
Alexander’s comments comes as several Republican senators have expressed doubts about repealing the law without an immediate replacement. President-elect Trump has also called for Obamacare repeal and replace to be done simultaneously.
Alexander, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said the goal isn’t to create a huge bill to replace Obamacare.
“We don’t want to replace a failed Obamacare federal system with another failed federal system,” Alexander said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “We want to create many systems across this country step by step to give Americans more choices of insurance that cost less.”
Alexander added that “rescue teams” will be needed to help customers in the individual marketplace, which is for people who don’t get insurance through work and comprises Obamacare’s exchanges.
“If we do not act before March 1 to make sure insurance companies are selling into those markets we will have many people who won’t be able to buy insurance,” Alexander said.
He highlighted several parts of a potential rescue plan, including throwing out Obamacare’s rules for what benefits must be offered in healthcare plans sold on and off the exchanges.
“The goal is to get as close as possible to allow any state-approved plan to allow for health insurance under Obamacare rules while we are transitioning to a new system,” he said. “We will allow states to determine the so-called essential health benefits.”
Another part of the plan is to allow Obamacare customers who get tax credits to use the subsidies to buy plans off the exchanges.
He also would continue payouts of cost-sharing reduction payments to insurers, which are intended to pay down co-pays and deductibles for lower-income Obamacare customers.
Alexander said a rescue team is needed as the insurance market is on the verge of collapse, pointing to big premium increases in his own state and others.
“Next year these Americans may have zero choices,” he said. “Their subsidies may be worth about as much as a bus ticket in a town where no buses run.”
The health of the individual market is a key focal point in the debate over repeal. Democrats have aimed to push back against Republican claims that the market is collapsing.
The White House put out a report Tuesday that claimed double-digit premium hikes for 2017 are a one-time correction and haven’t hampered enrollment in the marketplaces.
Several Democrats have warned that repealing the law without a replacement would cause insurers to bolt the marketplaces and leave millions without insurance.
The Senate this week is debating a budget resolution that starts the Obamacare repeal process.
