Senate Democrats have a plan for their long-awaited vote on extending the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies: Put a “clean” three-year extension on the floor next week and dare Republicans to vote “no.”
It’s a challenge the GOP seems ready to embrace.
“Make no mistake,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said from the Senate chamber on Thursday, “our bill is the last chance Republicans will get before Jan. 1 to prevent premiums from skyrocketing.”
But if it’s “the last chance” to address premiums before they increase, Republicans seem unbothered.
While some GOP lawmakers — more moderate Republicans representing battleground seats — have publicly entertained the idea of an extension, they’ve mostly pointed to shorter time frames: one, maybe two years.
Republicans have instead called for changes that would combat fraud in Obamacare, place income caps on the subsidies and require all enrollees to make minimum payments — among other proposals. That is, if Republicans want to extend the subsidies at all. Many don’t.
Still, when pressed on why he went with three years — when there’s little indication it would ever become law — Schumer insisted his proposal is “not a nonstarter.”
“We’re doing the quickest, easiest, simplest way to take the burden off the backs of the American people, and they ought to vote for it,” he said.
“Thirteen votes could solve the problem,” Schumer said, a reference to the number of Senate GOP votes required to overcome the filibuster if every member of the Democratic coalition votes for the plan.
Republicans, however, are literally calling it a “nonstarter.”
That was the word Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., used to describe a clean, three-year extension, telling MS NOW she was “surprised” Democrats made that offer.
“I don’t know why they wouldn’t have any adjustments in there,” she said.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he believes the three-year plan is merely Democrats’ “shot over the bow to begin with.”
“And then hopefully we’ll be able to put together something that might work,” he said.
And Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska — who has been part of bipartisan conversations — said, “If you just have straight three years, you’re not going to get 60 votes. And so I’m not interested in just messaging.”
Next week’s planned vote — scheduled for Thursday, according to Schumer — was one of the conditions included in the bipartisan deal crafted to end the record-breaking shutdown last month. GOP senators promised Democrats a vote on a health care bill of their choosing by mid-December, with the caveat that there was no guarantee the legislation would pass.
Addressing health care prices — especially the pending demise of enhanced Obamacare subsidies at the end of 2025 — was a central Democratic demand of the shutdown. If lawmakers don’t act, premiums for millions of Obamacare enrollees are set to rise dramatically next month.
It remains unclear if Senate Republicans will offer their own counterproposal to the Democratic plan. The party has yet to rally around a single idea, though GOP senators have floated several different ideas.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., for instance, has pitched a plan to replace the enhanced subsidies with Health Savings Accounts — an idea, he’s noted, that would appease President Donald Trump’s push to send money directly to Americans rather than to insurance companies. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., this week also called for allowing taxpayers to deduct out-of-pocket medical expenses.
Bipartisan talks toward a potential health care fix, meanwhile, have all but fizzled out.
Democrats blame Republicans, arguing they won’t offer a tenable alternative and taking issue, in particular, with a GOP push to include new abortion restrictions.
“It was aspirational discussion, but it never got concrete,” Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said Thursday.
Across the aisle, Hawley said he’s still holding out hope for a compromise to avert premiums from skyrocketing, voicing frustrations with the top two Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.
“The fact that the four corners are not meeting, they’re not attempting to hash out any sort of a compromise here — I think it’s just very, very discouraging,” he said.
As the Senate gears up for what could be show votes next week, in the House, a small but bipartisan cohort of lawmakers on Thursday rolled out their own health care framework.
It would extend the enhanced premiums with some immediate changes for a year, while teeing up votes on larger health care changes by mid-2026.
“Having access to health care can literally mean the difference, as you know, between life and death,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., one of those spearheading the talks, said at a press conference.
But, he added, “Time is ticking. Time’s not on our side.”
It’s unclear whether such a plan would ever make it to the House floor.
Asked if the group had any commitment from Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to put any of the ideas on the floor, Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., told MS NOW, “He has not made a commitment to that yet.”
“But we are certainly urging him to do so,” Kiley said.
