Trump said to want bipartisan Senate Obamacare deal
President Donald Trump urged Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander to seek out an Obamacare deal with Democrats — encouragement that might help sway Republicans who are skeptical of a bipartisan agreement.

Alexander, the chairman of the Senate health Committee, has been working with ranking Democrat Patty Murray for weeks on an Obamacare stabilization bill with similar parameters. But the talks had stalled over how to define state flexibility: Republicans want to let states modify their health systems under Obamacare, and Democrats are wary of anything that could unwind any of the consumer protections in the law.

The discussions sped up over the weekend after the White House on Oct. 12 said Obamacare’s cost-sharing reduction payments would end as soon as next week, according to Republican and Democratic sources. The cost-sharing program, which reimburses insurers to help low-income people pay out-of-pocket health costs, was the centerpiece of a 2014 lawsuit by House Republicans that contended the payments were illegal because they had not been authorized by Congress.

Alexander wants to craft a deal that has the support of a “significant number of Republicans and Democrats.” His goal is to hand the legislation off to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Alexander said Monday he wants to pass a bill as soon as possible so that consumers could see premium relief in 2018.

It’s unlikely that such a bill would pass on its own, particularly if it is poised to get more Democratic support than Republican votes. Democrats have already suggested attaching it to a larger bill, or even folding it into a year-end spending deal, but some worry that would come too late to have an effect on 2018 rates.

A White House official stressed the effort would have to deliver changes to the health law.

“We are willing to work with Congress to reach a legislative solution,” a White House spokesman said. “We will not provide bailouts to insurance companies until we provide the American people with relief from the Obamacare disaster.”

Alexander said he won’t agree to a deal that lacks expanded flexibility for states because he wouldn’t be able to get significant support from other Republicans.

Senate Republicans on Monday said they are open to seeing what Alexander and Murray can come up with.

“I’ve been encouraging Sen. Alexander to work with Sen. Murray all the way throughout the process, but there absolutely has to be some give on the part of the Democrats — the flexibility we need at the state level to lower the cost of premiums for families,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said he wants to “see some reforms” in a bill.

There is more skepticism about a bipartisan Obamacare deal in the House, where Republicans were able to pass an Obamacare repeal bill only to see the Senate fail at the task.

Alexander and Murray have been discussing a deal since the summer. But Trump on Monday suggested that lawmakers were holding “emergency meetings” on a bipartisan bill because of him.

“Republican are meeting with Democrats because of what I did with the CSRs — because I cut off the gravy train,” Trump told reporters.