Should-Read: Sarah Kliff: Top Democratic, Republican health experts agree on this plan to fix Obamacare
Should-Read: Sarah Kliff: Top Democratic, Republican health experts agree on this plan to fix Obamacare: “‘This package is no one’s conception of what is perfect health reform’, says Ron Pollack… of… Families USA, an ardent defender of the ACA… https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/9/16119244/bipartisan-plan-fix-obamacare
None of the signatories, if acting alone, would offer this precise package. But that is the whole process of bipartisanship. As a composite, we think this is constructive and has the best opportunity to move forward in Congress….
Continued funding of the cost-sharing reduction subsidies…. “Reassessing” certain health law policies that are meant to stabilize the individual market…. Continue to encourage all Americans to sign up for coverage…. Let states do more experimentation within the health care law…. Allow a “judicious expansion” of health savings accounts…. Ensure funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)….
The policy ideas here aren’t the big deal. The coalition is.
Wilensky began organizing the bipartisan group back in January in partnership with Pollack… Chen, who has defended the House’s Obamacare repeal bill; Stuart Butler, a vice president at conservative Heritage Foundation, which supports Obamacare repeal; and Grace-Marie Turner, who was part of John McCain’s 2008 policy advisory team…. John McDonough, a Harvard professor who advised Sen. Ted Kennedy during the health reform debate in 2009, and Vikki Wachino, who ran the Children’s Health Insurance Program under President Barack Obama….. Conservative advisers that I’d expect Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), who chairs the HELP committee, to reach out to—and the liberal Obamacare advocate that Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the committee’s ranking member, would call for advice on fixing the health law… now backing the same plan to fix Obamacare—a promising step toward possible success in the bipartisan effort to fix Obamacare.