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October 24, 2017 at 01:42 PM
Sen. Orrin Hatch and Rep. Kevin Brady, top Republican lawmakers, unveiled a new proposal to shore up the Affordable Care Act, challenging a separate bipartisan compromise among their fellow lawmakers.
The legislation would roll back coverage mandates that supporters of the health law say are critical to its success.
(Related: ACA Taxes Aren’t Necessarily Going Away: GOP Senators)
Hatch and Brady said their deal includes funding for insurer subsidies for two years, with unspecified “pro-life protections”; pausing the Affordable Care Act requirements that all people have health insurance and that employers offer it; and increasing the contribution limit for health-savings accounts.
The announcement is an effort to turn the debate over the Affordable Care Act, as the health law is known, in a more conservative direction, after Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander and his Democratic counterpart Patty Murray, of Washington reached a deal to fund cost-sharing subsidies and provide states with more flexibility to run their own insurance markets.
While that deal gained the backing of at least 12 Republicans and 12 Democrats in the Senate, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had signaled he might not bring it to the floor amid doubt over whether President Donald Trump would sign it.
