Trump shifts stance on health plan

He backs away as authors vow to fight for bill

The authors of a bipartisan plan to calm health insurance markets will push the proposal forward, even as President Trump’s stance ricochets.

WASHINGTON — The authors of a bipartisan plan to calm health insurance markets said Wednesday they’ll push the proposal forward, even as President Donald Trump’s stance ricocheted from supportive to disdainful to arm’slength and the plan’s fate teetered.

“If something can happen, that’s fine,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “But I won’t do anything to enrich the insurance companies because right now the insurance companies are being enriched. They’ve been enriched by Obamacare like nothing anybody has ever seen before.”

The agreement by Sens. Lamar Alexander, RTenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., on a two-year extension of the federal subsidies to insurers that Trump has blocked gained an important new foe on Wednesday.

The anti-abortion National Right to Life said it opposed the measure because it lacked language barring people from using their federally subsidized coverage to buy policies covering abortion, said Jennifer Popik, the group’s top lobbyist.

No support frm Ryan

In another blow, Doug Andres, spokesman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Ryan “does not see anything that changes his view that the Senate should keep its focus on repeal and replace of Obamacare.” With hard-right conservatives wielding considerable influence among House Republicans, it was unclear if Ryan would be willing to even bring the measure to his chamber’s floor.

Alexander and Murray shook hands on their agreement this week after months of intermittent talks. Failure to restore the federal payments to insurers could result in higher premiums for millions buying their own individual policies and drive carriers from unprofitable markets. Many in Congress would love to avoid blame for two such tumultuous events.

The compromise has won warm endorsements from Democrats and some Republicans. It includes steps won by Republicans to make it easier for insurers to avoid some coverage requirements under President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

‘It’s stalled out’

But Trump has lambasted the subsidies as insurance company bailouts. Other GOP lawmakers are loathe to prop up Obama’s statute, a law they’ve long vowed to repeal.

“I think right now it’s stalled out,” No. 3 Senate GOP leader John Thune of South Dakota told reporters.

The money reimburses carriers for lowering copayments and deductibles for about 6 million lowerincome customers, which the companies must do under Obama’s statute.

Without those funds, insurers would likely boost premiums by an average 20 percent, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected. This would especially hit many buying their own health insurance who earn too much to qualify for tax credits that help lower earners reduce their premiums.

Confusingly, Trump praised the bipartisan agreement early Tuesday as a “very good solution,” only to berate it in an evening speech. Some said his objections Wednesday to enriching insurers could be addressed by strengthening language in the compromise to ensure the money directly benefits customers, not companies.

“The president has had six positions on our bill,” Murray told reporters. Asked if the measure was still alive, she said “of course it is.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has been non-committal about the plan.