"I think there will be a lot of stabilization," said Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican. "There will be a lot more spending, that’s for sure. And the American people are going to be ripped off a lot more than they should be. But that’s what happens what you have to go that route" of bipartisanship.
“If we don’t pass it next week, we’ve got to do something, because people are going to get hurt,” said Senator David Perdue, a Georgia Republican.
Senator Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat and former governor, also said he’s speaking with senators in both parties and governors of a number of states about a possible bipartisan plan. He said he has approached about one-fourth of the GOP governors and one-third of the Republican senators, including Collins, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.
"Ultimately we need to do a fair amount more than shoring up the exchanges,” Carper said.
Carper wants to hold down premium costs on the insurance exchanges. To get his support, he said, a bill would need to stabilize the exchanges to ensure "they’re not just full of sick, unhealthy people” but cover healthy people as well. A plan also needs to keep in place the requirement that individuals have insurance or something else "that is at least as effective" to get people to buy coverage, he said.
He said he wants more generous subsidies for poorer people buying insurance in the exchanges. States should be allowed to experiment with ideas that might even include a single-payer approach, Carper said.
Vote Next Week
Graham insisted he hasn’t shut the door to McConnell’s GOP-only measure, but also made clear he’s not happy with it.
"I want to do the best I can, and I think the best we can is not on the table right now," he said.
McConnell said Tuesday the Senate will move toward a health-care vote next week, although he doesn’t plan to release a final bill until Thursday or appear to have the votes needed to pass it. He contemplated what failure would mean last week at home in Kentucky.