GOP Awaits Trump Direction on Health Care as Subsidy Spike Looms

President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers are grasping for ideas on a new party-line package aimed at blunting criticism of rising health care and other costs of living, as spiking premiums bedevil the party and affordability becomes the defining issue of next year’s pivotal midterm elections.

GOP lawmakers, bruised by an off-year election in which the party sustained losses, are struggling to present an alternative to Democrats’ push to renew expiring health care subsidies as a spike in insurance premiums looms for more than 20 million Americans.

Republicans in the House and Senate at this stage seem to be talking ...