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Two U.S. senators from both parties are close to finalizing a bipartisan deal to shore up the health insurance exchanges created under Obamacare, the chamber's top Democrat said on Thursday. The move, which Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said was "on the verge" of completion, would stabilize the market for individuals who buy their own insurance plans on the federal or state-based exchanges. (Heavey, 9/28)

A pair of deal-making senators is inching toward a bipartisan agreement to fund Obamacare's insurance subsidies and provide some certainty to health insurance markets just two days after the GOP’s latest Obamacare repeal effort failed. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and ranking member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) are moving toward a plan to stabilize Obamacare in the short term after meeting on Wednesday. Though they have not yet clinched a deal, their progress could ignite a new battle over how or whether to improve the law. (Haberkorn and Everett, 9/28)

It’s far from clear that any deal Murray and Alexander work out could win approval from the full Senate, let alone pass the House. Many other Senate Republicans, including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), are more skeptical of a deal to stabilize ObamaCare than Alexander is. (Sullivan, 9/28)

“It’s not a matter of just whether Senator Murray and I can agree,” Alexander said. “It’s a matter of whether she and I can find consensus among Republicans and Democrats that we believe can be enacted into a result.” (Edney and Litvan, 9/28)

The panel held a series of hearings this month on ways to stabilize the individual insurance market. Alexander has described a package that would include an appropriation for the law’s disputed cost-sharing payments, additional flexibility for states seeking waivers from health law requirements and perhaps allowances for more people to buy basic catastrophic health plans. He’s cautioned that any plan needs to be able to win the support of Republicans in Congress and the White House. (McIntire, 9/28)

As predicted, the last-ditch GOP effort to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act ended the way its predecessors did this week — in failure. With a Saturday midnight deadline fast approaching, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) conceded Tuesday that they lacked even the 50 votes necessary to pass their bill using a truncated budget process. (9/28)