Republican lawmakers are upping the pressure on GOP leaders to extend enhanced health insurance subsidies set to expire at year’s end for those with Affordable Care Act coverage, bolstering similar demands from Democrats as part of government funding talks.
Outspoken factions in both chambers are doubling down on warnings it would be politically and economically untenable to allow the pandemic-era boost to Obamacare premium tax credits expire and would spike prices headed into an election year.
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Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), a centrist not seeking reelection, said an extension should include new efforts against waste, fraud, and abuse, along with other unspecified modifications, but that failing to re-up them in some fashion would be “bad policy [and] bad politics to let them lapse.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), a conservative with a populist streak, added: “Nobody can afford their health insurance as it is. If we allow these to expire — I don’t think this is a partisan issue. I think this is about, are people going to be able to afford healthcare?”
Others with more centrist streaks, like Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Mike Rounds (R-SD), have echoed similar concerns. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), a member of the GOP leadership team, supports an extension but with narrowed income eligibility requirements, a desire also expressed by other Republicans.
In the House, a group of vulnerable Republicans wants to punt the issue past the 2026 midterms with a one-year extension.
GOP leaders on both sides of the Capitol have begrudgingly acknowledged the desire to address the subsidies but indicated any form of extension would come only in a long-term government funding package and not as part of a stopgap measure needed by a Sept. 30 shutdown deadline, as Democrats have demanded.
Thune rejected the notion of including the boosted Affordable Care Act credits in stopgap funding, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told Punchbowl News that while he does not “love the policy,” he “understand[s] the political realities.” Collins, Appropriations Committee chairwoman, is tasked with crafting funding measures and is locked in a battleground reelection fight, potentially strengthening the possibility of an extension.
The expiring boost, implemented in Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act under former President Joe Biden, applies to 22 million of the 24 million low- and middle-income Americans with plans through the ACA marketplace. It’s by no means a crowd-pleaser among conservatives, given the ties to Obama and Biden. Also, unfavorable factors are the extension price tag that can top tens of billions of dollars annually, and eligibility that includes those making 400% the poverty rate.
“Why, when we railed against this reckless and irresponsible expansion, would we then extend that outside of COVID?” House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) said. “I don’t think you could get a majority of our conference to support it.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) responded by telling reporters Wednesday that the “American people and many Republicans are demanding that this be part of” a deal to avert a shutdown, which will require Democratic support to overcome a filibuster. The saga is the latest test for Senate Democrats, and Schumer in particular, to wield what limited leverage they possess in the minority.
“We have to meet the needs of the American people. That has to be in the bill,” Schumer said of extending subsidies. “Their proposal does not do that.”
Monthly premiums are projected to sharply rise next year without the enhanced credit for those with ACA plans. But the effects will also be felt by those who don’t use a government-run exchange and have coverage elsewhere, such as through their employer, because of fewer overall enrollees.
“The individuals that are on Obamacare right now have no place else to go. It’s not their fault,” said Rounds, pitting blame on Democrats’ signature healthcare law for having “destroyed the private health insurance market.”
“For the federal government to simply say, ‘You’re on your own now,’ that would be a terrible thing for us to do,” Rounds continued. “You can’t walk away from these folks who find themselves in this predicament through no fault of their own.”
DEMOCRATS THRUST EXPIRING OBAMACARE CREDITS INTO CENTER OF SHUTDOWN BRAWL
Complicating any potential government funding deal is the level of distrust among Democrats toward Republicans and President Donald Trump. The White House has repeatedly withheld money previously appropriated by Congress, with minimal pushback from GOP lawmakers. The expressed desires from Republicans to greenlight more subsidies hold little weight among some Democratic leaders.
“That’s not enough,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said. “If the president is going to ignore the appropriations law, it’s really not worth the paper that it’s written on.”
Rachel Schilke contributed to this report.