Week ahead: GOP ready to pounce after ObamaCare’s bad summer

House Republicans are seizing on a summer of bad headlines for ObamaCare at a high-profile hearing Wednesday. 

Just ahead of the third sign-up period, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will raise questions about the viability of the marketplaces, pointing to double-digit premium hikes and increasingly vocal concerns from insurers. 

{mosads}Nationwide, state officials are preparing for the open enrollment period that starts Nov. 1 and will be giving final approval to premium hikes over the next several weeks. 

“Six years into this law, we still have basic questions about the stability of these health care exchanges,” Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), who leads the health panel, said in a statement. The hearing takes place 10 a.m. on Wednesday.

Senate in talks on new Zika funding deal 

Senate Republicans are expected to unveil their latest compromise bill to fund the nation’s response to the Zika virus next week. 

GOP and Democratic leaders are in talks to craft a short-term government spending bill by Sept. 30. Leaders from both parties – and both chambers – say that a stopgap bill is likely to include the long-disputed funding to fight Zika.

A growing number of Republicans acknowledge that a funding package will have to strip away the so-called “poison pills” targeting Planned Parenthood and ObamaCare to win approval from Senate Democrats. 

But in a closed-door meeting on Friday, House Republicans said they didn’t come to an agreement about those issues, and say they are still demanding that the funding be offset – another sticking point with Democrats. 

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.), who is strongly anti-abortion, said the House needed to stick to its “responsible language” and argued that Democrats have exaggerated the bill’s impact.

Rep. Bill Flores (R-Texas), head of the Republican Study Committee, said he wants to see the Zika funding bill include offsets – “at least as much as we did before.” 

He added that there are virtually “no objections” to attaching Zika to the government spending bill: “We need to have Zika in whatever we do. We’ve got to take care of Zika.”

Fresh coverage data from Census 

On Tuesday, the U.S. Census Bureau will release its latest health insurance report, likely revealing another year of historic coverage gains.

The report contains national and some state-level data, which could be used by the Obama administration ahead of Election Day to tout the impact of the law.

Also on Tuesday, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Health and Human Services’s Minority Health Director Dr. J. Nadine Gracia will speak at an event sponsored by The Hill focused on disparities in healthcare delivery. RSVP here.

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