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2 Senators Strike Deal on Health Subsidies That Trump Cut Off - The New York Times

posted onOctober 18, 2017
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Article snippet: WASHINGTON — Two leading senators, hoping to stabilize teetering health insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act, reached a bipartisan deal on Tuesday to fund critical subsidies to insurers that President Trump moved just days ago to cut off. At the White House, virtually as the deal was being announced, Mr. Trump voiced support for it while insisting that he would try again to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature health law. The plan by the senators, Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, and Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, would fund the subsidies for two years, a step that would provide at least short-term certainty to insurers. The subsidies, known as cost-sharing reduction payments, reimburse insurance companies for lowering deductibles, co-payments and other out-of-pocket costs for low-income customers. Without them, insurance companies said, premiums for many customers purchasing plans under the Affordable Care Act would shoot up, and with profits squeezed, some of the companies would probably leave the market. “In my view, this agreement avoids chaos,” Mr. Alexander said, “and I don’t know a Democrat or a Republican who benefits from chaos.” Mr. Trump appeared to back the deal, even as he berated insurance companies, declared the Affordable Care Act “virtually dead” and promised the demise of the health law in due time. “It’ll get us over this intermediate hump,” the president said at a Rose Garden news conference, describing it as “a... Link to the full article to read more

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