Regarding the Senate’s work on the individual health insurance market, Senator Lamar Alexander said on Wednesday, “My main concern is doing everything I can to help the 350,000 Tennesseans and the 18 million Americans in the individual market who may literally have no options to purchase health insurance in 2018 and 2019. However the vote comes out on the health care bill, the Senate health committee—that I chair – has a responsibility during the next few weeks to hold hearings to continue to explore how to stabilize the individual market. I will consult the Senate leadership, and I will set those hearings after the Senate votes on the health care bill.”
The individual market is where approximately six percent of insured Americans get their insurance. These are individuals who don’t receive their insurance through their employer or through government programs like Medicaid and Medicare.
In February, Senator Alexander chaired a Senate health committee hearing on helping that six percent – or 18 million Americans – in the individual insurance market who are facing an “Obamacare emergency” and may have zero options for insurance next year. Alexander invited Tennessee Insurance Commissioner Julie McPeak -- who has previously said Tennessee’s Obamacare exchange is “very near collapse” – to testify at that hearing.
In March, Senator Alexander introduced, along with Senator Bob Corker, legislation to rescue Americans with Affordable Care Act subsidies who have zero options for health insurance on the exchanges for the 2018 plan year.
Video of the senator’s statement is available here.