Senate panel to hold bipartisan hearings on healthcare

The Senate Health Committee will begin holding bipartisan hearings the first week of September on how to stabilize and strengthen the individual insurance market, the panel's top Democrat and Republican announced Tuesday.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) - the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee - said the goal is for the panel to craft a bipartisan, short-term proposal by mid-September, as insurers must finalize how much their premiums will cost by the end of that month.

"We need to put out the fire in these collapsing markets wherever these markets are," Alexander said at the beginning of a HELP Committee hearing on nominations.

The committee plans to discuss the issue with insurance commissioners, patients, insurance companies, governors and healthcare experts. The committee's staff will beginning preparing for the hearings this week, Alexander said.

The panel's top Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), said she welcomed the bipartisan hearings and appreciated Alexander's willingness to work with her on the issue. Alexander and Murray have previously crafted bipartisan deals, such as a rewrite of the No Child Left Behind Act last congressional session.

Read more at The Hill