Washington Times (DC)
Conservative pressure groups fired a warning shot Monday
at members of Congress eyeing measures that would free up federal funding to
stabilize Obamacare's wobbly markets.
Heritage Action and more than a dozen other organizations
said attempts to subsidize extra-pricy customers with federal tax dollars or
restore "cost-sharing" payments that President Trump canceled would
prop up a failing law, without injecting the type of free-market reforms that
Republicans promised when they won the White House and Congress in 2016.
"These proposals are costly, likely to become
permanent, and unnecessary. Worst of all, bailout payments keep the failed
Obamacare infrastructure in place and do nothing to address the real reasons
premiums and deductibles are rising–the law's regulations, mandates, and
subsidy structure," the conservative groups wrote Monday.
Republican leaders are figuring out whether to include the
provisions in a must-pass omnibus spending bill before a March 23 deadline.
The effort's been upended by a side debate over abortion —
conservatives say none of the funding should subsidize plans that cover the
procedure, though Democrats are pushing back at pro-life demands.
Democrats' votes might be needed to push the measures
across the finish line, if many conservatives balk at bolstering Obamacare or
the underlying spending package.
Insurers are set to request double-digit price hikes on
the individual market, which includes Obamacare's exchanges, in most states for
2019.
Companies cite a lack of healthy customers in the program
and the GOP's repeal of the "individual mandate" — the 2010 program
main prod for goading customers in.
Moderate Republicans and party leaders worry they'll face
public backlash for rising premiums, since the GOP controls every lever of
government.
Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander and Sen.
Susan Collins, Maine Republican, have partnered with Democrats on bills that
would reel in rate hikes by resuming reimbursements for insurers who pick up
low-income customers costs on the Obamacare exchanges and freeing up billions
for a "reinsurance" program that blunts the cost of customers with
big claims, so others don't have to pay more.
They say the package will also save taxpayer money over
time, because federal subsidies must rise with premiums under Obamacare's
framework.
Conservative groups urged lawmakers to resist those
arguments, saying federal "bailouts" will be hard to reverse and that
states can pursue reinsurance programs on their own, if necessary.
The groups, including ones back by the influential Koch
brothers, want the GOP to revive repeal-and-replace efforts instead of patching
up President Obama's signature domestic achievement.
"Americans deserve relief from Obamacare's damage and
rising premiums through real reform, not ill-conceived policies like bailouts
that simply paper over the underlying causes," the groups wrote.
"Lawmakers should fulfill their longstanding promise
of repealing and replacing Obamacare, not setting the dangerous precedent of
bailing it out."
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