GOP senators indicated they would consider a bipartisan approach to stabilize the ACA's individual insurance market, according to a Bloomberg report.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., addressed the issue Sunday on ABC's "This Week," where he was asked if he supports bipartisan legislation to continue ACA cost-sharing reduction payments — which help insurers subsidize the cost of coverage for low-income Americans.
He said he was disappointed in the Senate GOP's failed health reform efforts last month, "but we have got a destabilized market where insurance rates are going to go up 20, 30, 40 percent next year. Anything that we can do to prevent that and the damage that that will have on people who need healthcare I think is something I have to look at."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Saturday he, too, is willing to consider such a bipartisan approach, according Bloomberg, which cites the Associated Press.
Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Ranking Member Patty Murray, D-Wash., announced Aug. 1 the committee plans to hold hearings in September regarding stabilizing and strengthening the ACA's individual insurance market.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has not made a decision on whether to keep up the cost-sharing reduction payments. When asked about this Sunday, Sen. Tillis said, "Well, the cost-sharing reductions over time need to be eliminated. But we can't just all of the sudden pull the rug out from underneath an industry that has had this in place for about seven years.
"So in an ideal world I would like to see them go away overnight, but we don't live in an ideal world. If we don't provide some glide path downward, it will have the effect of raising insurance premiums.
"And that's why we have got to come up with some sort of balance. And I think the administration understands that."
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