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.…
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congratulations to my friend, Bill Brock, who is celebrating his 90th birthday. When I think of Bill, I think of a Tennessean who has served our State and our country honorably for over a half century. Bill grew up in Chattanooga and…
This is a signal of the importance the government places on the need for expansion and will be an important additional factor in the planning balance.
I thank the Senator from Ohio for his courtesy, as well as his leadership. I will not be long. (The remarks of Mr. Alexander pertaining to the introduction of S. 4284 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and…
I ask unanimous consent that I be recognized to speak for as long as I may require. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. ____________________





