Sen. Patty Murray (right) described the agreement she and Sen. Lamar Alexander reached as a deal "in principle," and Democrats seemed "receptive" to its broad contours. | Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call Alexander, Murray strike bipartisan Obamacare deal providing subsidies, state flexibility "We're going to round up co-sponsors as best we can," Sen. Lamar Alexander says.

Sens. Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray say they have reached an agreement on a bipartisan Obamacare deal to fund a key insurance subsidy program and provide states flexibility to skirt some requirements of the health care law.

There is no assurance that the agreement will get to the Senate floor, however. Republicans on Tuesday were lukewarm about the prospect of resuming debate over whether to try to prop up Obamacare after multiple failed GOP attempts to repeal the law.


The deal would include funding through 2019 for Obamacare’s cost-sharing program, which President Donald Trump cut last week. It would allow states to use existing Obamacare waivers to approve insurance plans with "comparable affordability" to Obamacare plans, Alexander said. But it would notably not allow states to duck the law’s minimum requirements for what a health insurance plan must cover.

"Sen. Murray and I have an agreement," Alexander said. "We're going to round up co-sponsors as best we can."

Alexander said he and Murray would then hand the legislative language off to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to determine how and whether to bring it to the Senate floor. The chamber has a full legislative calendar for the next few weeks, including a defense authorization bill, a GOP budget and tax reform.

McConnell on Tuesday declined to say when a bill may come to the floor. "We haven't had a chance to think about the way forward yet," he told reporters.

During a Rose Garden appearance, Trump called the agreement "a short-term deal" that could lead to a longer-term solution involving block grants to states.

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"Lamar has been working very, very hard with the Democratic, his colleagues on the other side," Trump said. "And they're coming up and they're fairly close to a short-term solution. The solution will be for about a year or two years. And it’ll get us over this intermediate hump."

Trump later appeared to proactively blame Democrats for coming hikes in Obamacare coverage costs. "Any increase in ObamaCare premiums is the fault of the Democrats for giving us a 'product' that never had a chance of working," Trump tweeted.

Alexander presented an outline of the plan to GOP senators at a closed-door lunch on Tuesday.

It would also allow consumers over age 30 to buy catastrophic health insurance plans — dubbed “copper” plans — as well as $106 million in funding to support Obamacare enrollment, according to Senate aides familiar with the plan. The new funding would be collected from existing insurance user fees and be used to provide states grants to help people enroll in catastrophic plans.

The deal would make it a little easier for states to get Obamacare waivers, called 1332s. Instead of only being allowed to approve insurance plans that are “as affordable as” existing Obamacare coverage, they could approve plans with “comparable” affordability.

The agreement would also make procedural changes to the way states apply for the waivers in an attempt to speed up the approval process.

At a Democratic lunch meeting, Murray described the agreement as a deal "in principle" and Democrats seemed "receptive" to the broad contours of what Murray and Alexander had reached, according to Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

"The devil is certainly in the details when you start talking about flexibility and copper plans," Murphy said.

“We think it's a good solution and it got broad support when Patty and I talked about it with the caucus,” Schumer told reporters. “We've achieved stability if this agreement becomes law."

The outline “is something I think will attract a good number of votes for people who want to see a near-term solution that ensures stability in the markets and enables and sets up a debate down the road— maybe it's Graham-Cassidy or something else that is a more comprehensive solution to repealing and replacing Obamacare,” Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said, alluding to the GOP's most recent repeal bill.

“I think there's a good amount of interest right now at least in making sure we maintain stability in the marketplace, give the states more flexibility which my understanding of his legislation is that it does and we'll see as we have an opportunity to review it where our members come down."

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) shrugged off the prospect of quick action on an Obamacare bill, saying the deal has "just been announced.”

In the House, Republican Study Chairman Mark Walker of North Carolina quickly bashed the idea.

"The GOP should focus on repealing and replacing Obamacare, not trying to save it," Walker said in a Tweet. "This bailout is unacceptable."

Several Republican senators said they were waiting to see legislative text.

“Most of the members of the conference are finding out about the details for the first time. I don’t think anybody beyond Lamar and a few others know,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said. "The details are important.”

“I’m going to wait and examine the details,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said.

Some GOP senators are skeptical of spending more time on Obamacare when they have a chance to make good on long-sought promises on tax reform.

“We could be quickly distracted by that,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said before the deal was announced. “We don’t want to shift our focus away from tax reform.”

Seung Min Kim, Burgess Everett, Adam Cancryn and Elana Schor contributed to this report.

