WASHINGTON — The Senate health committee will hold two hearings early next month on how the nation’s individual health insurance marketplaces can be stabilized, as party leaders grasp for a fresh path following the collapse of the Republican effort to repeal and replace much of former President Barack Obama’s health care law.
GOP and Democratic leaders are exploring whether they can craft a bipartisan but limited bill aimed at curbing rising premiums for people who buy their own insurance. In many markets, consumers are seeing steeply rising premiums and fewer insurers willing to sell policies.
A Sept. 6 hearing will feature state insurance commissioners. The next day’s witnesses will be governors. Both groups will be bipartisan, but aides said the names will be released later.
The push for even a modest compromise is expected to be difficult following years of harsh partisan battling over the Republican drive to dismantle President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care law. Last month, the Senate rejected an effort by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to erase much of that statute following defections by GOP senators and unbroken Democratic opposition.
