Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Examining The Alexander-Murray Plan: A Bipartisan Deal On Obamacare? Stop The Presses; It's Not A Bailout
Los Angeles Times: Two Senators Announce A Bipartisan Deal On Obamacare, But Don't Celebrate Yet
n a window into how the U.S. Senate should actually work, two senators — a Republican and a Democrat — announced a bipartisan deal Tuesday to save some provisions of the Affordable Care Act from the Trumpian butcher block. Don’t celebrate quite yet. The window into bipartisan comity is only narrowly cracked open, as yet. The details of the deal are still murky, but plainly it won’t undo some of the damage done to the ACA by the Trump administration over the last nine months. And conservative Republicans are already grousing that it’s too accommodating to a program that has brought health coverage to 20 million Americans. (Michael Hiltzik, 10/17)
The New York Times: Trump’s Attack On Insurer ‘Gravy Train’ Could Actually Help A Lot Of Consumers
All year, President Trump had threatened to release a metaphorical bomb into the Obamacare markets — canceling a certain type of payment to health insurers. Everyone was convinced it would destroy the marketplace. Late last Thursday, he carried out his threat, later saying that “the gravy train ended the day I knocked out the insurance companies’ money.” (Margot Sanger-Katz, 10/18)
Bloomberg: Fresh Hope For Obamacare, And Bipartisanship
After several failed attempts to wreck the U.S. health-insurance system, Congress now has a bipartisan agreement to help shore it up. The deal could still fall apart -- victimized by the president's fickle support and committed opposition from conservatives in Congress -- but it's exactly the kind of rational compromise that Washington needs more of. (10/17)
The Washington Post: Trump Doesn’t Seem To Have Any Idea What He’s Doing On Health Care
President Trump has decided upon a justification for his controversial decision to cancel Obamacare payments to insurers covering policies for low-income Americans: The insurance companies are getting rich off this stuff. As is often the case with Trump, his argument seems plausible on its face but, upon further examination, quickly falls apart. And not only that, but Trump is now lending support to a deal that would actually restore the payments that he says are lining insurance company pockets. (Aaron Blake, 10/17)
Los Angeles Times: The Bipartisan Plan To Shore Up Obamacare Is Anything But A 'Bailout'
A pair of U.S. senators is scrambling to shore up the Obamacare insurance markets, an effort made especially urgent by a series of moves by the Trump administration. On Tuesday they revealed the outlines of a compromise, including an agreement to restore about $7 billion in annual payments to health insurers that the administration recently halted. (10/18)
Los Angeles Times: Who's To Blame If The ACA Blows Up? Trump, Of Course
President Trump still doesn’t get it: He owns Obamacare now. He’s been hard at work undermining the government-regulated health insurance program —eliminating subsidies to insurance companies, slashing programs to enroll new customers, authorizing bare-bones plans to lure healthy patients out of the insurance pool. But if the system collapses, he insists it won’t be his responsibility. “I think the Democrats will be blamed for the mess,” he said on Monday. (Doyle McManus, 10/18)
