Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer wants an extension of enhanced Obamacare subsidies, which are set to expire this year, added to a funding bill that Congress needs to pass by Sept. 30.
“The American people and many Republicans are demanding that this be part of it,” the New York Democrat told reporters. “What we said is we have to meet the needs of the American people. That has to be in the bill.”
Some rank-and-file Democrats have suggested the Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government could serve as ideal leverage to get Republicans to agree to an extension of the enhanced Obamacare subsidies.
Mr. Schumer’s brief remarks on Wednesday were the first time Democratic leaders made that a formal demand.
He said he and his fellow New Yorker and House counterpart, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, are “on the same page” regarding the strategy.
Mr. Jeffries earlier Wednesday stressed his desire for Congress to “urgently” extend the enhanced Obamacare subsidies before open enrollment begins Nov. 1, but stopped short of saying whether that action had to be taken this month along with passing a spending package.
“The open enrollment period begins in less than two months. It begins on November 1,” he said. “So this is one of many issues that should be addressed urgently by the United States Congress in terms of making sure we stop the effort to continue to rip health care away from the American people and lean into an effort to actually protect the health care of the American people.”
Mr. Jeffries said Democrats want to do more on that front than just extend enhanced tax subsidies, but he didn’t make specific demands. He and Mr. Schumer are set to meet Wednesday afternoon to discuss their approach.
Democrats created the premium tax credits to help subsidize health insurance plans purchased on the Obamacare exchanges as part of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.
They later enhanced the amount of the tax credits and broadened their availability to people with higher incomes as part of their 2021 pandemic relief law, the American Rescue Plan, and extended those enhancements the next year in the Inflation Reduction Act.
The base tax credits don’t expire, but the enhancements first enacted in 2021 will sunset at the end of the year unless Congress acts.
Mr. Schumer said if no solution occurs this month, notices will go out Oct. 1, warning tens of millions of people that their premiums will go up by an average of 18%.
Mr. Jeffries warned that failing to renew the enhanced subsidies will exacerbate Americans’ worries about being able to afford health care after Republicans already voted this year to cut Medicaid. Republicans said the Medicaid cuts don’t target benefits but tighten eligibility to exclude illegal immigrants and able-bodied adults who decline to work.
“Millions of Americans are about to experience dramatic increases in their health care premiums, co-pays and deductibles,” Mr. Jeffries said. “Millions of families will incur thousands of dollars in additional health care costs a year when they are barely making it right now.”
Republicans largely oppose the Obamacare subsidies as a matter of policy, but some are concerned about being blamed for rising premiums if the enhancements lapse. GOP leaders have left the door open to a possible negotiation on the matter but prefer to keep it separate from the government funding talks.
Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries have said Democrats will support only a government funding bill they help negotiate.
Mr. Schumer has expressed frustration that their request for a meeting with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, and Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, has been ignored for weeks.
“We need to meet the needs of the American people, particularly when it comes to costs and health care costs,” Mr. Schumer said. “Leader Thune needs to sit down with us and negotiate a bipartisan bill that meets these needs in order to get something to pass.”
The Democratic leaders want to avoid a repeat of the March scenario in which Republicans muscled their own stopgap spending bill through Congress and dared Democrats to vote against it.
Mr. Schumer took heat from Democrats inside and outside Congress for supporting the GOP stopgap in an effort to avert a government shutdown, which he argued at the time would be worse for the American people than the partisan spending bill.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.