Pardon Our Dust
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Jim Hodges, a former South Carolina governor who leads McGuireWoods Consulting’snational multistate strategies team, recently joined a former Virginiagovernor to discuss a proposed bipartisan healthcare measure on the FoxBusiness Network.
On Oct. 18, Democrat Hodges and former Virginia Gov. George Allen, aRepublican, were asked about compromise legislation U.S. Sens. PattyMurray, D-Wash., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., offered to fund subsidies toinsurers that is a critical component to the Affordable Care Act.
Murray and Alexander reached a deal to continue subsidies for an additionaltwo years that reimburse insurers for offering reduced-cost policies tolow-income individuals buying coverage through insurance exchanges underthe ACA. President Donald Trump plans to discontinue them, a move thatwould cause premiums for those customers to soar and could force insurersto abandon some regional markets.
Hodges said the Alexander-Murray bill is needed to stabilize healthinsurance markets.
“Frankly, the people who will lose if this isn’t done are people who arepaying full freight on the insurance exchanges,” Hodges said. “They’re theones who are going to pay probably 20 percent [increases] or more.”
“I think it gives the policymakers a couple of years to try to come up witha final solution,” he added. “I’d like to see a little more bipartisanshipin Washington, and here’s a chance to finally do it.”
Allen, who was a McGuireWoods lawyer briefly after leaving the governor’soffice in 1998 and before his election to the U.S. Senate in 2000, saidRepublicans prefer block grants that states can use as they see fit tomitigate health insurance costs.
To view the Fox Business segment via Facebook,click here.