Is There Now a Bipartisan Effort to SAVE Obamacare?

If there’s a legislative fix on the way for the scrapped cost-sharing payments to insurance companies under Obamacare, President Trump seems to be behind it. Trump last week announced he would end reimbursements to insurers selling discounted policies to low-income customers, which the administration has argued haven’t been properly appropriated by Congress. Shortly after it was first reported on Tuesday that Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray had reached a deal on funding these reimbursements, the president was asked about whether the White House had been involved in crafting this fix.

“Yes, we have been involved,” Trump said at a Tuesday afternoon press conference at the White House. “And this is a short-term deal because we think, ultimately, block grants going to the states is going to be the answer.”

Later on Tuesday, in a speech to members of the Heritage Foundation, Trump was more explicit in his support for the idea. “And I'm pleased the Democrats have finally responded to my call for them to take responsibility for their Obamacare disaster and work with Republicans to provide much-needed relief to the American people,” he said. “While I commend the bipartisan work done by Senators Alexander and Murray—and I do commend it—I continue to believe Congress must find a solution to the Obamacare mess instead of providing bailouts to insurance companies.”

As he said in his press conference, Trump continues to believe some version of the Graham-Cassidy health-care compromise is his preferred path for pursuing that Obamacare solution.

All of this is already frustrating conservatives, who saw the cost-sharing payments as what Trump described last week: a “gravy train” of payouts to insurers that subsidize more expensive plans mandated by Obamacare’s tougher regulations on what plans must provide. Alexander, the Republican chairman of the committee overseeing this, has said the fix should be temporary to stabilize the market until Republicans can find a permanent solution. Trump has echoed that view. There’s a reason conservatives are highly skeptical of this—the disastrous results so far of the Republicans in Congress to pass anything repealing and replacing Obamacare.