Sen. Brown says he is ‘ready’ to work with Trump on some ACA changes

Sen. Sherrod Brown and 43 other Senate Democrats told President Donald Trump they are “ready and willing” to work with the White House to stabilize the individual insurance markets established by the 2010 health law known as Obamacare.

Just days after House Republicans gave up efforts to scrap the law signed by President Barack Obama and replace it with a more market-oriented approach, the 44 Senate Democrats made their offer today in a letter to Trump.

In a conference call with reporters, Brown said he would consider changes to attract younger and healthier people into the insurance pools for the individual market. The law offers middle-income people without health coverage to buy individual insurance policies through federal and state marketplaces known as exchanges. But premiums on those policies have increased because not enough young and healthy people tried to buy policies in the marketplaces.

“We have said all along on the Affordable Care Act that if we had more young people in the pool….it would stabilize prices,” Brown told reporters on a conference call today.

In a floor speech today, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said if Trump ends his efforts to “undermine the” health law, “we Democrats are ready to sit down with him and Republicans in Congress in good faith to discuss a bipartisan approach to improving our health care system.”

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