Chairman Alexander Statement on President Trump’s Decision to Make August Cost Sharing Reduction Payments

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 16, 2017 – Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement on President Trump’s decision to make August cost sharing reduction payments:

“The president’s decision helps 18 million Americans who buy health insurance on the individual market—songwriters, farmers, and the self-employed who don’t get insurance from the government or on the job. State insurance commissioners have warned that abrupt cancellation of cost-sharing subsidies would cause premiums, copays and deductibles to increase and more insurance companies to leave the markets in 2018. Congress now should pass balanced, bipartisan, limited legislation in September that will fund cost-sharing payments for 2018 as well as make section 1332 of the Affordable Care Act work better to give states more flexibility in approving insurance policies.  These two actions will help make insurance policies available at affordable prices. Congress owes struggling Americans who buy their insurance in the individual market a breakthrough in the health care stalemate.  The Senate health committee begins hearings on stabilizing the individual market the first week of September. Congress should act before the end of September to keep insurance available at a reasonable cost during 2018.”

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