Senator Nelson is a man of the people, in sharp and contrast to rebarbative reptilian reprobate ME-Publican MARCO ANTONIO RUBIO, whom Donald Trump called "Little Marco" in what passed for "debate" among ME-Publicans. We elect politicians like Bill Nelson and Susan Collins to solve problems, not create them. Heartening that there's a spirit of compromise on Capitol Hill, amidst so much ME-Publican sturm und drang.
Sen. Collins teams up with Florida Democrat on bill to shore up ACA
Maine's Republican senator and Bill Nelson offer a reinsurance plan that would help keep premiums in check, as the Senate yet again considers a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
BY JOE LAWLOR
STAFF WRITER
Portland Maine Press-Herald
September 20, 2017
Even as the Senate is yet again considering a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Maine Sen. Susan Collins is teaming up with a Florida Democrat in a potential across-the-aisle compromise that aims to shore up the existing ACA insurance markets.
Collins and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, introduced the Reinsurance Act of 2017 on Tuesday in an attempt to stabilize the health insurance marketplace. Reinsurance are programs designed to reduce risk for insurance companies by providing funds to insurers for high-risk enrollees. When they work, reinsurance programs help keep premiums in check. The bill would provide $2.25 billion per year in federal funding for state-run reinsurance programs.
Collins held out the olive branch in a Senate floor speech Tuesday, beseeching her colleagues for a bipartisan compromise. Her speech came at the same time Republican leadership is heading toward a potential vote to repeal the ACA. Collins was one of three Republican senators to buck the party and vote “no” in a dramatic late night vote on July 27 that seemingly sank efforts to repeal the ACA. Collins, known as a moderate, is one of the few Republicans touting fixes to the health care law as opposed to repealing it.
“I personally remain ever hopeful that a bipartisan agreement on a targeted consensus approach to stabilizing the markets and reducing premiums can still be reached,” Collins said in the floor speech.
Collins has been lobbying for a bipartisan compromise on health care since January. Early this month, the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, of which Collins is a member, held hearings on how to fix the ACA, and reinsurance was a solution that Republicans and Democrats agreed on.
“Insurance commissioners from Alaska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington state all spoke positively of its benefits as did the five governors who testified before the committee, three Republicans and two Democrats,” Collins said. “They were in broad agreement that reinsurance funding would help to stabilize the markets and lower premiums.”
Collins, while not yet taking an official position on the latest repeal effort, Graham-Cassidy, has expressed strong reservations, and many political experts are counting her in the “no” column.
Appearing on CNN Tuesday, Collins said Graham-Cassidy contains “many of the same flaws of the bill we rejected previously and in fact, it has some additional flaws.”
Collins has said that previous Republican bills to repeal the ACA would have been a “disaster” for the United States.
Graham-Cassidy would remove all subsidies to help moderate and low-income people afford insurance, slash Medicaid, undermine protections for pre-existing conditions and eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood. There would be 32 million fewer Americans with insurance, according to a Washington think tank, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
“I am very concerned by projections cited by the Maine Hospital Association, which show that the bill would cut Medicaid and other federal health care spending in Maine by more than $1 billion in the next 10 years,” Collins said Monday in a statement about Graham-Cassidy,
Collins said that while the Senate is “deeply divided on what to do on health care policy,” politicians should be able to “come together” on a solution to fix the ACA.
Joe Lawlor can be contacted at 791-6376 or at:
jlawlor@pressherald.com
Twitter; @joelawlorph
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With Affordable Care Act repeal dead, Bill Nelson helping lead bipartisan effort for solution
Ledyard King, USA TODAY NETWORK - FLORIDA Published 6:25 p.m. ET July 28, 2017
Naples Daily News
The Senate has rejected a measure to repeal parts of former President Barack Obama's health law, dealing a serious blow to President Donald Trump and the GOP agenda. The final vote was 51-49. (July 28) AP
Bill Nelson, Susan Collins
(Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
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WASHINGTON - A chance encounter between two senators on an airplane last month in Maine may be the catalyst for a breakthrough on health care reform.
Since that Sunday afternoon meeting at the Bangor Airport, Florida Democrat Bill Nelson and Maine Republican Susan Collins have been talking to each other about ways of finding a solution on an issue that has deeply divided Congress along party lines.
There's no grand bargain in sight, but a low-key dinner the two organized for a bipartisan clutch of senators at a Washington restaurant Wednesday night suggests at least a few lawmakers are trying to find a way out of the partisan gridlock.
That effort took on added significance following the stunning defeat early Friday morning of a Republican bill to do away with some parts of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, leaving lawmakers scrambling to decide the best way to move forward on health care reform.
The deciding vote was cast by Arizona Republican John McCain. He had implored colleagues to reach a bipartisan solution during a stirring floor speech he delivered Tuesday, days after his brain cancer diagnosis.
The following night, Nelson and Collins hosted the dinner at NoPa Kitchen, an American brasserie steps from the International Spy Museum.
Three Republicans senators,John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, held a press conference Thursday saying they cannot vote for the GOP health care bill in its current form. (July 27) AP
The attendees included key Senate moderates such as Republicans Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mike Rounds of South Dakota, and Democrats Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Mark Warner of Virginia and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Early Friday, Collins and Murkowski joined McCain as the only three Republicans to vote against the bill, which died 51-49.
"It was a good first start, and everyone (at the dinner) pretty well knows that the path that we're on is not going to be the ultimate solution," Nelson said Thursday before the bill was killed.
Collins sounded a similar theme following Friday's vote.
"We need to reconsider our approach," she said in a statement posted on her Twitter account. "The ACA is flawed and in portions of the country is near collapse. Rather than engaging in partisan exercises, Republicans and Democrats should work together to address these very serious problems."
Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer said he spoke with GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin on Friday about working together.
“There’s a thirst to do it,” Schumer said. “I just hope the magic moment of John McCain last night has lasting effect and makes us work together in a better way, and both sides are to blame for the past.”
Florida Republican Marco Rubio, a staunch supporter of repealing the Affordable Care Act, said his view hasn't changed despite Friday's roadblock.
"In both 2010 and 2016, I ran on the promise of repealing and replacing ObamaCare, and I intend to keep that promise," he said. "The insurance markets are crumbling (and) the average premiums have more than doubled and earlier this year yet another rate increase has been proposed for 2018. If we do not to act, things will only get worse because a failing Obamacare will remain in place."
Collins and Nelson, both former insurance commissioners in their states, traded some ideas on the plane ride to Washington during that June flight. Notably, Nelson said, they liked the idea of creating a federal reinsurance fund that would protect the health insurance companies against catastrophe.
Nelson has already introduced a bill to that effect after a Congressional Budget Office analysis concluded it would lower health care premiums 13 percent in Florida alone.
The more they talked, the more they realized they could work on other aspects of health care reform given the political stalemate between party leaders.
"We said let's do this together," Nelson said. "That led to Susan taking the initiative and inviting everybody that was there to get their ideas."
A reinsurance fund was one ideas that was discussed over dinner, he said. So were ways to address cost-sharing reductions that go to help low-income Americans on the individual health care market pay for coverage. The goal was finding ways to stabilize the health insurance markets, he said.
Manchin touted the reinsurance proposal on the Senate floor Thursday. And McCaskill said lawmakers need to act now to ensure people have someplace they can buy insurance next year.
"We are trying to get the ball moving in a bipartisan way," she said. "So we’re trying to start with a bipartisan group and see if we can’t come up with some ways to stabilize the markets."
The Missouri Democrat said she's hoping to team up with Republicans and "start small and then see if we can grow our number."
When they left the dinner, there was no commitment to meet again as a formal working group. But Nelson said he expects the senators will keep talking.
In his closing comments, Nelson told the group that their roles as moderates who can lead a bipartisan effort would grow if the repeal bill failed,
"There's going to be a vacuum created in which we ought to offer some of these ideas," he said.
USA TODAY reporters Deirdre Shesgreen and Nicole Gaudiano contributed to this story.
Contact Ledyard King at lking@gannett.com Twitter: @ledgeking
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