With the viability of the Affordable Care Act exchanges threatened by the loss of subsidies, key GOP Senate committee chairmen announced this week they will hold a series of bipartisan hearings to repair the ACA when Congress returns in September. Any legislation that emerges, however, will likely face serious challenges. Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said he will hold a hearing on reauthorizing the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which is set to expire at the end of September, but it could also become a vehicle for a wide variety of reform proposals from both sides of the aisle. HELP Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) also announced he will hold hearings on how to stabilize and strengthen the individual market and hoped to pass a bill by the end of September to authorize funding for the ACA's cost-sharing reduction subsidies to address affordability issues with ACA exchange plans. Additional reform proposals with potential bipartisan support that could be added to any measure that advances include:
- Funding for state stability and/or reinsurance programs;
- Delaying the Cadillac tax, medical device tax, and health insurance tax; and
- Increasing the threshold for the employer mandate to 500 or more employees.
While Alexander has a history of bipartisan accomplishments with the Committee's Ranking Democrat Patty Murray (D-WA), the Committee membership includes a wide array of viewpoints that include those of Rand Paul (R-KY), Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). The goal would be to pass a bill through both houses before the ACA open-season begins on November 1, 2017.
