After watching Senate Republicans fail to pass another repeal bill on Tuesday, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) decided to restart talks with Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) for a bipartisan bill that would temporarily fix Obamacare -- otherwise referred to as the affordable care act (ACA).

Republican claims that ACA is failing or fixing it would be a bailout

While Republicans were drawing more media attention for their repeated attempts to repeal the ACA, both Murray and Alexander held four hearings during September. They seemed to have come to an agreement before Sen.

Orrin Hatch and other Senate Republicans killed the effort, saying they would not support a bill that would "bailout" the insurance companies under the exchanges.

Sen. Murray said that they had been making progress to not only stabilize the market but to also reduce premiums. Republicans have been adamant in their belief that Obamacare was failing because of the increased premiums. But, long before this, even before the Affordable Care Act came online in 2010, Republicans were already looking for reasons to say that the ACA was failing.

Even with some of the instability Republican legislation has caused to the health care system, providers are still holding on as best as they can in order to offer coverage through the ACA's federal and state exchanges.

Currently, provider options in counties nationwide are limited between 1 to 4 which was increased this year with providers finally offering coverage for every county in the country. Sen. Murray said that there had been members moving in and out of their committee as they were holding hearings this month but that two weeks ago, Republican leaders had "pulled the rug out from under us."

Pushing on with bipartisan bill despite opposition

Since then, she said that the last two weeks of trying to get support had been wasted.

Murray said that she made an offer to Sen. Alexander for state flexibility and seeing if they can find some way to offer cheaper plans. It's unknown if there could be a renegotiation with insurance providers under the ACA now that their deadline to sign up ended on Wednesday. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the floor on Thursday that both lawmakers were close to an agreement.

For Republicans, their deadline was set for Sept. 30 in order to get the most votes under the rules of reconciliation. They will not be able to get another chance until January. But, reconciliation would not be required since the Senate would be able to pass their bipartisan bill with a combination of votes from Democrats and Republicans.

Sen. Alexander said that he was looking to get broader support from both sides. However, Republican leaders could kill the effort again and despite President Trump saying that he would work on health care with Democrats -- following the recent defeat -- he promised to veto the bill if it reached his desk. House Speaker Paul Ryan has already said that they would not vote for the bill if it came to the House of Representatives. Here is Schumer speaking after the recent health care repeal effort had failed.
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