Kasich, Hickenlooper to propose blueprint to stabilize health insurance markets
Governor John Kasich and Governor John Hickenlooper are moving ahead on their joint effort to tackle health care reform, announcing on Monday that the two will be proposing a "blueprint" on ways to stabalize the health insurance market.
"Thrilled to share that @GovofCO and I have come to an agreement on a blueprint to stabilize individual health insurance markets," Kasich tweeted on Monday.
Thrilled to share that @GovofCO and I have come to an agreement on a blueprint to stabilize individual health insurance markets. 1/
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) August 28, 2017
He went on, writing, "Right now, there is nothing more important to health care reform than providing long-term stability to the markets. We can get that done," he assured.
Right now, there is nothing more important to health care reform than providing long-term stability to the markets. We can get that done. 2/
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) August 28, 2017
Kasich says the next step in the duo's fight for comprehensive reform will include "sharing our ideas with Republican and Democrat governors in our coalition," and he says he hopes to have a final version to announce sometime later this week.
While the governors have not yet released any details, the two governors have been collaborating over the past few months on their own efforts toward revising health care legislation that incorporates a stronger bipartisan approach.
Appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation" in early August, the two pushed for bipartisan efforts to revising the current health law's approach to individual mandates and entitlements in order to help stabilize the current marketplace.
"In terms of a mandate, the key here is to recognize that when you let healthy people not be part of the pool, you're going to concentrate people with serious health issues, so much more expensive insurance risks, into the market," Hickenlooper told CBS News' John Dickerson.
He added, "I think the plan is that we begin to look at how do we get to that- those solutions, and really stabilize the private markets, and figure out how are we going to get to these reinsurance or high cost pools. And as we do that, we'll try to include more governors, Republicans and Democrats, to make sure we're kind of balanced."
Kasich also said curbing the cost of pharmaceutical drugs will also require "dramatic bipartisanship."
Aside from pushing their strategy for health care reform, the duo, who have made regular stops at Sunday political talk shows, have shot down numerous reports of a presidential campaign run on a joint unity ticket to challenge President Trump in 2020.