Heidi Alexander: “later this week, Senator Murray and I, with other Senators, will introduce bipartisan legislation to give States…”

“later this week, Senator Murray and I, with other Senators, will introduce bipartisan legislation to give States additional flexibility to create more choices of health insurance policies in the individual market and to extend cost-sharing reduction subsidies during 2018 and 2019. These subsidies pay for copays and deductibles for millions of low-income Americans who buy health insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchanges. Our goal is to stabilize and then lower the cost of premiums and to enable all Americans to have access to health insurance. Our legislation will be based on the four hearings and other meetings that the Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee held last month. I am chairman of that committee, and Senator Murray is the ranking Democratic member. These hearings and meetings were bipartisan. They were lengthy. They were remarkable in this sense: They engaged nearly 60 Senators from both political parties in extensive discussions. We not only had the four hearings, which involved the 23 members of our HELP Committee, but we invited any other Senator who wished to come to a committee meeting ahead of time to meet the Governors and the State insurance commissioners and others who were testifying, and 37 did. So we have had extensive participation by 60 Members of the U.S.…”