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The Senate health committee will hold two hearings early next month on how the nation's individual health insurance marketplaces can be stabilized, as party leaders grasp for a fresh path following the collapse of the Republican effort to repeal and replace much of former President Barack Obama's health care law. GOP and Democratic leaders are exploring whether they can craft a bipartisan but limited bill aimed at curbing rising premiums for people who buy their own insurance. (Fram, 8/22)

“Eighteen million Americans, including 350,000 Tennesseans – songwriters, farmers, and the self-employed – do not get their health insurance from the government or on the job, which means they must buy insurance in the individual market,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. “My goal by the end of September is to give them peace of mind that they will be able to buy insurance at a reasonable price for the year 2018,” Alexander said. (Collins, 8/22)

The Senate's Health Committee will hear from state insurance commissioners and governors about how to stabilize the ObamaCare exchanges during two hearings next month. State insurance commissioners will testify on Sept. 6, while governors will appear before the panel the following day. (Hellmann, 8/22)

The bipartisan hearings mark a stark change in direction on health care policy for the Senate. Republicans spent the first seven months of the year trying to roll back the Democrats’ 2010 health care law by themselves, using the budget reconciliation process. (McIntire, 8/22)

With Congress on recess, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is taking full advantage of the time away from Washington, D.C. by crisscrossing Texas and focusing on a familiar message: it's past time to repeal Obamacare. Even though the U.S. Senate in late July rejected the latest so-called "skinny repeal," Cruz is continuing to tell Texans during stops over the last two weeks that the fight goes on. (Wallace, 8/22)