Doubts Rise About Sen. Collins' Strategy To Shore Up Insurance Market

NPR reports:

Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican whose vote was pivotal in pushing the GOP tax bill forward last week, thought she had a deal to bolster health care protections in exchange for her support.

But it's now unclear wether her strategy to shore up part of the Affordable Care Act will prevail or that it would produce the results she anticipates.

The tax bill repeals the ACA's fines for the individual mandate, which requires most people to have health insurance or pay a fine. Collins says she would vote for it if Senate Republicans promised to allow a vote on two other health bills.

One would reinstate payments to insurers in order to cover discounts that the ACA requires those insurers to provide to their lowest-income enrollees for out-of-pocket costs. President Trump ended those "cost-sharing reduction" payments in October. The bill that Collins supports would extend the payments for two years.

Imagine that.