51ÊÓƵ

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) acknowledged Monday that Congress's next steps on healthcare are unclear after Republicans failed to repeal ObamaCare. "Obviously we had a setback on the effort to make dramatic changes on ObamaCare. The way forward now is somewhat murky," the Senate GOP leader said at a Chamber of Commerce event in Kentucky with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. (Carney, 8/21)

State and local groups that help support ObamaCare are springing into action ahead of an enrollment period they fear could be sabotaged by the Trump administration. Their marketing efforts are expanding, their advertisements are starting earlier, and those that fought repeal are shifting their focus to spreading the word about open enrollment, which begins Nov. 1.  (Roubein and Hellmann, 8/22)

Iowa and Oklahoma are about to test the Trump administration's declared commitment to giving states greater leeway in establishing alternatives to the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges. Iowa officials plan to submit a sweeping state innovation waiver request to the CMS next week that would substantially revamp the ACA premium tax credit model and use some of the federal subsidy money to set up a reinsurance program to protect insurers that sign up high-cost enrollees. ... On Wednesday, Oklahoma filed a waiver request, also under the ACA's Section 1332 state innovation waiver authority, to use federal subsidy money to fund a new reinsurance program, as the first step in a broader reform of the ACA coverage system. (Meyer, 8/18)