Senate starts bipartisan effort to overhaul Obamacare

Congress this week will start a bipartisan process of considering ways to fix problems with rising premiums and dwindling health insurance options that Obamacare customers are facing in 2018, just weeks after it failed to repeal parts of the law over the summer.

In a series of hearings that will begin Wednesday, members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will start meeting with health insurance groups, health policy experts, governors and health insurance commissioners to try to arrive at an agreement on these key issues of premiums and choice.

It's a dramatic shifting of gears for Republicans, who spent months in 2017 trying to push through an Obamacare repeal bill on its own, without any help from Democrats.

Lawmakers are hoping to come up with a plan by Sept. 27 in order to make an impact on premiums, which must be agreed upon between states and insurers. In many states, insurers filed several proposed rates that are contingent on what happens in Congress.

Several states are facing double-digit increases on gross premiums unless Congress acts, while other states are facing such hikes either way, if states approve their proposals.