US Senate approves funding for UN climate body

In this photo, US President Donald Trump gestures while walking across the South Lawn to board Marine One, bound for Camp David, on September 8, 2017 in Washington, DC. Photo: MANDEL NGAN/AFP The US Senate Appropriations Committee passed a spending bill on Thursday evening that includes $10 million to help fund the United Nations' climate change body that oversees the Paris Climate Agreement, despite President Donald Trump's decision to stop funding it.

Reality peeks into Senate

Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner of Theresa Miller, right, together with state insurance commissioners from left, Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance Commissioner Julie Mix McPeak, Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, and Alaska Division of Insurance Director Lori Wing-Heier, testifies Wednesday during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on the individual health insurance market. After seven years of demonizing Obamacare and using it primarily for political leverage, Senate Republican leaders appeared to open a new chapter this week with a nascent effort to actually improve the law.

Senators seek bipartisan deal to shore up insurance markets

Senators are launching hearings to help Republicans and Democrats decide if they can forge a modest agreement to shore up the nation's individual insurance markets. The effort will show whether divided Republicans are ready to pivot from trying to obliterate the Obama health care law to helping it survive, and if both parties can overcome lingering raw feelings over that battle.

Knoxville a dreamera afraid after DACA announcement

An immigration advocacy group, AKIN, said there are more than 8,000 people covered by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, in Tennessee. They are commonly known as dreamers.

Sen. Lamar Alexander tries to end long stalemate on Obamacare

Alexander said that the package is likely to be narrow, hinting on Tuesday that it could just include giving states more flexibility to get federal waivers for changes to their healthcare market and providing funding for cost-sharing subsidies to insurers for 2018. "We will see if we can come up with a limited bipartisan package, maybe just two things that have some effect in 2018," Alexander said.

Frustration mounts over premiums for individual health plans

Millions of people who buy individual health insurance policies and get no financial help from the Affordable Care Act are bracing for another year of double-digit premium increases, and their frustration is boiling over. What they pay is tied to the price of coverage on the health insurance markets created by the Obama-era law, but these consumers get no protection from the law's tax credits, which cushion against rising premiums.

5 Controversial Ideas For Shoring Up Health Insurance Markets

Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander , chairs the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee; Sen. Patty Murray , is the committee's ranking Democrat. With Republican efforts to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act stalled, tentative bipartisan initiatives are in the works to stabilize the fragile individual insurance market that serves roughly 17 million Americans.

Corker’s careful balancing act on Trump knocked off kilter

Sen. Bob Corker refuses to say whether he'll seek a third term, but he has carefully said and done all the right things to avoid provoking a spirited primary challenge next year. The Tennessee Republican has limited public appearances back home largely to friendly civic clubs and chambers of commerce meetings, where he can regale members with tales of his pro-business agenda and blunt assessments of congressional dysfunction - all the while steering clear of direct criticism of President Donald Trump.

Insurers to receive subsidies

The government will make this month's payments to insurers under the 2010 health care law that President Donald Trump still wants to repeal and replace, a White House official said Wednesday. Trump has repeatedly threatened to end the payments, which help reduce health insurance copayments and deductibles for people with modest incomes but remain under a legal cloud.

Report: Higher premiums if Trump halts ‘Obamacare’ subsidies

People buying individual health care policies would face sharply higher premiums, and some may be left with no insurance options if President Donald Trump makes good on his threat to stop "Obamacare" payments to insurers, congressional experts said Tuesday. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office also estimated that cutting off the payments would add $194 billion to federal deficits over a decade.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

A week after an attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act failed, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he'd consider a bipartisan effort to continue payments to insurers to avert a costly rattling of health insurance markets. McConnell told reporters Saturday there is "still a chance" the Senate could revive the measure to repeal and replace "Obamacare," but he acknowledged the window for that is rapidly closing.

McConnell Willing to ‘Take a Look’ at Bipartisan Health Care Bill

A week after an attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act failed, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he'd consider a bipartisan effort to continue payments to insurers to avert a costly rattling of health insurance markets. McConnell told reporters Saturday there is "still a chance" the Senate could revive the measure to repeal and replace "Obamacare," but he acknowledged the window for that is rapidly closing.

Vice President Mike Pence speaks during the Tennessee Republican…

Vice President Mike Pence speaks during the Tennessee Republican Party's Statesmen's Dinner at Music City Center in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017. Vice President Mike Pence speaks during the Tennessee Republican Party's Statesmen's Dinner at Music City Center in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017.

Senator announces bipartisan health care hearing on Obamacare

Several Republican and Democrat lawmakers agree that Congress needs to prevent a collapse of the health insurance market, which could hurt millions of consumers - and that concern has opened up some bipartisan dialogue. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, said the Senate health committee will hold bipartisan health care hearings on how to repair the individual market.

Bipartisan ACA fix begins in Congress

Sen. Lamar Alexander talks with reporters on Nov. 29, 2016 before the Senate Policy Luncheons in the Capitol. Republicans on both sides of the Capitol scrambled Tuesday to defuse President Donald Trump's threat to cut off critical health insurance payments, moving around Trump toward bipartisan legislation to shore up the Affordable Care Act.