Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday that he hopes President Trump will “come around” to support a bipartisan bill intended to stabilize Obamacare, though he appeared to leave the door open to making changes to the legislation’s language.
“We can only hope he comes around and grasps what’s in the bill,” the New York Democrat said in remarks on the Senate floor, though he later added that he would welcome suggestions.
The bill, which will be entered into the congressional record on Thursday afternoon, would for two years pay cost-sharing reduction subsidies to insurers that Trump abruptly ended last week. It also would allow states to change certain rules in Obamacare more quickly and would expand “copper” plans, which have lower premiums and higher deductibles, to people age 30 and older.
Trump has referred to the subsidies as a “bailout” and said he does not support the current bill. The White House has offered suggestions on how to change it, but Schumer said Wednesday that Democrats should not reopen negotiations on the legislation.
In his floor remarks Thursday, he appeared to leave the door open to changes, but didn’t cite specific provisions that Trump had listed, such as offering “relief” from the individual and employer mandates. He focused instead on the language about cost-sharing reduction subsidies, expected to reach $9 billion in 2018, which reimburse insurers for offering lower out-of-pocket costs to low-income customers in Obamacare plans. Trump ended the payments to compel Congress to arrive at a deal on healthcare, and noted in a formal White House statement that a judge had ruled that authorizing them through the executive branch was illegal because they needed congressional appropriation.
Schumer argued that ending the payments hurts customers rather than insurance companies, which still must offer the discounts and will raise premiums on everyone to do so.
“Restoring cost-sharing will help people, not insurance companies,” Schumer said. “Senators Alexander and Murray have made sure of it. I’ve worked, I’ve talked to them about their language, it’s good language. And maybe we can make it better. If the president has suggestions we welcome it. But as it is, it’s pretty strong.”
Schumer noted that Trump initially appeared to support the legislation before coming out against it.
“We’ve seen President Trump’s near-constant equivocation on the agreement,” Schumer said. “We shouldn’t let it impede the progress of this very important bipartisan compromise. He’s for the bill one day; he’s against it the next. That’s not uncommon – the president is sometimes for and against something in the same sentence.”
