Policy And Politics: Let’s Make A Deal On Health Care; Obamacare’s ‘Soaring Premiums’ And ‘Soaring Risks’
Editorial pages offer different perspectives about how to proceed in addressing the current and future challenges faced by the Affordable Care Act's individual insurance market.
The Wall Street Journal:
Health Care Needs A Bipartisan Fix
President Trump has asked for a bipartisan short-term solution to reduce health-insurance premiums and avoid chaos in the individual market so 18 million Americans won’t be hurt. Last week, 12 Republican and 12 Democratic U.S. senators proposed a solution. After eight years of ObamaCare speeches and votes but zero legislative victories, our bill actually could make conservative ideas law. It would permanently roll back some restrictions on states and allow anyone to buy a lower-cost catastrophic plan. To achieve these conservative victories, we agreed to extend cost-sharing reduction payments for two more years. (Sen. Lamar Alexander and Sen. MIke Rounds, 10/26)
The New York Times:
How Republicans Can Make A Deal On Health Care
A consensus is emerging on Capitol Hill about the need to appropriate funding for the Affordable Care Act’s cost-sharing subsidies, which help working-class Americans buy health insurance. But there are plenty of areas of disagreement, especially among Republicans. They can’t decide, having agreed to continue the subsidy payments, what changes should accompany them. (Lanhee C. Chen, 10/27)
Bloomberg:
Soaring Premiums Mean Soaring Risks For Obamacare
Avalere cites a number of factors that are driving up premiums. Many are the same problems we’ve been seeing for years, the product of bad program design: lower-than-anticipated enrollment in the marketplace and limited insurer participation. Some are a result of policy uncertainty: not knowing exactly what the government is going to do about Obamacare, insurers want to hedge their bets, so they don’t lose a fortune if the Trump administration suddenly decides to take off in a new direction. And then, of course, there are the CSR payments. (Megan McArdle, 10/26)
