Protect Our Care Illinois (POC-IL) lauds Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA) for working together to craft a bipartisan health care bill.  Their approach, unlike Republican led bills, while not perfect, takes steps toward stabilizing American’s access to health insurance by providing two years of funding for the Marketplace cost-sharing reductions; and supporting critical outreach and education activities.

This deal was the result of months of bipartisan discussions between Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Health Education, Labor, and Pensions committee including open hearings, where stakeholders, including governors, state insurance directors and advocates testified to the importance of stabilizing the Marketplace and ensuring plan affordability. This is the open fair process that the American people want Congress to engage in in order to find solutions to support and bolster the health care system.

POC-IL, like the vast majority of Americans, believes this is the way forward, where elected officials cross the aisle and work together to improve the ACA, not repeal it. Senators Alexander and Murray are demonstrating bipartisanship in action — the best path toward improving the American health care system.