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The Trump administration wants any congressional plan to shore up the Affordable Care Act markets to include conservative goals, such as letting insurers charge higher premiums to older people, according to a memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The memo encourages lawmakers to pass measures including allowing insurers to charge older people five times as much as younger people, expanding access to health savings accounts and increasing the amount of money that people can contribute to them, as well as supporting a permanent congressional appropriation for subsidies to insurance companies who decrease deductibles and copays for lower-income consumers in exchange for explicit exclusions on abortion coverage by those insurers. (Armour and Radnofsky, 3/6)

“Although congressional efforts to provide taxpayer money to prop up the exchanges is understandable, any such efforts must also provide relief to middle-class families harmed by the law and protect life,” the memo states. “In order to support such efforts, the administration believes these three policies to provide greater choice and control for middle-class families must be included.” (Sullivan, 3/6)

The document indicates the administration will support congressional efforts to prop up the wobbly marketplaces, in exchange for significantly expanding short-term health plans and loosening other insurance regulations. The document also makes several references to abortion language that will be problematic for Democrats. A potential stumbling block in passing any stabilization package is whether conservatives will insist on including language prohibiting the use of government dollars to pay for abortions. (Demko, 3/6)

A key House Republican downplayed the chances of Congress passing bills to stabilize the health insurance markets during a conversation at a conference hosted by CQ Roll Call on Tuesday. A bipartisan cohort of lawmakers is pushing a package of bills that would fund cost-sharing subsidies for low-income Americans and establish a reinsurance program to help with especially expensive patients under the Democrats’ health care law. (Clason, 3/6)

A coalition of health care providers and insurers on Tuesday called on House and Senate leaders to include additional funding for ObamaCare programs in the upcoming omnibus package to fund the government. “Immediate action is necessary to reduce premiums for individuals and families that purchase coverage on their own,” the groups wrote in the letter. (Weixel, 3/6)

Iowa legislators are moving to give small employers more freedom to band together to buy health insurance for their workers, but a central Iowa expert warns the approach might not offer much shelter from skyrocketing premiums. The “association health plan” proposal, Senate File 2349, passed the Iowa Senate on a 33-17 vote Monday evening. It effectively would allow insurance carriers to resume selling small-employer policies that don’t meet Affordable Care Act rules, such as by not covering maternity care or addiction treatment. (Leys, 3/6)