Republicans in Congress have a new direct-to-consumer plan to be used as a modification of Obamacare and they say they'll try to get Democrats to sign on, as debate over what to do about the Affordable Care Act continues.
The government shutdown came to an end last month with a promise to Democrats that there would be a robust debate over how to fix Obamacare, despite exploding heatthcare costs and quickly rising insurance premiums, but both the GOP and Dems appear to be far apart on any solutions.
That promise also included a deadline for legislation to be filed by the end of December, before the modified federal subsidies shut down, which would lead to a significant increase in insurance premiums on the accounts covered.
But on Tuesday two senators, Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on the Senate health committee and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) from the Senate Finance Committee put forth a plan that would eliminate enhanced premium subsidies supplied by the federal government, replacing them with injections of federal subsidy cash into personal health savings accounts, which would be a way of bypassing insurance companies and others that would normally receive that money, thereby putting the government cash directly into the accounts of healthcare consumers.
The plan has gotten the go-ahead from a number of other Republicans and was unveiled by Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Monday night.
There is no indication so far that Democrats will go along with the plan.