Should-Read: Cameron Joseph and Tierney Sneed: After Obamacare Repeal Collapse, GOP Weighs Whether To Help State Markets

Should-Read: “Unconstitutional but need to be made in a legal way…” is a very interesting category of congressional action…

Let us be very clear: the exchanges in blue states are in much better shape, and state governments can do a lot to shore them up and are willing to step in if the federal government drops the ball. It’s red states where the insurance exchanges are in trouble and where state governments lack the technocratic knowledge and the free cash flow needed:

Cameron Joseph and Tierney Sneed: After Obamacare Repeal Collapse, GOP Weighs Whether To Help State Markets: “Most Republicans have been happy to watch some state-level individual health insurance exchanges sputter… http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/after-obamacare-repeal-collapse-gop-weighs-whether-to-help-state-health-exchange-markets

…using those struggles as their main talking point for how Obamacare is failing under its own weight as the Trump administration exacerbated some of the exchanges’ problems. They assumed they’d be able to execute a broader policy change…. But after admitting defeat (at least for now) on a broad overhaul of the law, Republicans are beginning to come to grips with what to do going forward. “We’ve got to do something. The repeal effort’s dead so I think the next logical thing is we have to try to reach out and figure out where we can make health care better,” [said] Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL)…. Democrats are hopeful that their GOP brethren will be ready to move forward and craft a plan to stabilize the exchanges in the states that have been struggling…. But it’s unclear if Republicans are ready to move on and help fix the very real problems of some state-based exchanges in places like Iowa and Missouri where parts of states are left with just one, or even zero, health care options. President Trump, the man with by far the most power over that issue, has indicated he’s happy to let the exchanges continue to struggle—and threatened over the weekend to intentionally torpedo them….

Republicans… most believe that pulling the CSR payments would be policy malpractice, intentionally hurting Americans to make a political point, and carry big political risk. “I have said since December that while the CSR payments are not constitutional they need to be made in a legal way so that the market does not collapse. I have not changed my mind on that. We have to put the consumer first,” [said] House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR)….

There are some positive signs of bipartisan efforts, mostly on the Senate side. The chairman and ranking member of the Senate committee tasked with dealing with the largest chunks of healthcare, Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA) have expressed interest…. “I voted to take the next step toward what I believed was our best opportunity to repeal and replace Obamacare. The Senate’s failure to do this leaves an urgent problem that I am committed to addressing: Tennessee’s state insurance commissioner says our individual insurance market is very near collapse,” Alexander said in a statement after the vote failed. But even those Republicans who say they want to work in good faith… hint they’d been so focused on repealing Obamacare, they weren’t prepared with plans if it stood…