The Senate is scheduled for Thursday to vote down a bill that would prolong Affordable Care Act tax credits for millions of Americans, possibly marking an abrupt conclusion to a protracted Democratic initiative aimed at averting the expiration of COVID-era subsidies come January 1st.
TL;DR
- Senate will vote down a bill to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits, impacting millions.
- No serious bipartisan discussions have occurred to resolve the expiration of COVID-era subsidies.
- Both parties are expected to reject partisan bills, leading to increased ACA marketplace costs.
- Republicans propose health savings accounts as a substitute for the expiring tax credits.
Although there's a shared wish across both parties to extend the credits, Republicans and Democrats haven't entered into serious or significant discussions about a resolution. Consequently, the Senate is anticipated to vote on two partisan bills and reject them both, which will effectively ensure that a large number of individuals purchasing their health coverage through the ACA marketplaces see a steep rise in costs at the beginning of the year.
“It’s too complicated and too difficult to get done in the limited time that we have left,” said Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who has unsuccessfully pushed his Republican colleagues to extend the tax credits for a short time so they can find agreement on the issue next year.
Neither side has seemed interested in compromise.
The Democrats, who maintained a government shutdown for 43 days concerning the matter, have thus far remained steadfast in their proposition to prolong the subsidies for a duration of three years, without incorporating any of the new restrictions that the Republicans have put forth. The Republicans are presenting their own legislative measure that would permit the subsidies to cease, notwithstanding that some within the GOP conference, such as Tillis, have indicated their willingness to endorse an extension. The GOP's suggested legislation would establish new health savings accounts as a substitute for the tax credits, a concept that the Democrats have characterized as “dead on arrival.”
The competing Senate votes represent the most recent political communication effort in a legislative body that has functioned almost exclusively along party lines. This summer, Republicans advanced a substantial bill for tax and expenditure reductions by employing budget strategies that bypassed the necessity of Democratic support. Furthermore, they modified Senate procedures to overcome a Democratic obstruction of all individuals nominated by President Donald Trump.
A limited number of centrist Democratic senators reached across the aisle and made a deal with Republicans to end the shutdown during the previous month, sparking some optimism for a healthcare agreement that swiftly diminished due to an absence of genuine cross-party discussions.
An intractable issue
The ballots also represented the most recent attack in the debate over the Affordable Care Act, the landmark legislation championed by Former President Barack Obama, which the Democratic party enacted without any Republican support in 2010 to broaden the availability of health insurance.
GOP lawmakers have attempted without success since that time to revoke or reform the legislation, asserting that medical services remain prohibitively costly. However, they've encountered difficulties in identifying a substitute. Meanwhile, Democrats have elevated the measure to a key political talking point in numerous contests, wagering that the vast number of individuals purchasing health insurance through federal exchanges desire to retain their plans.
“When people’s monthly payments spike next year, they’ll know it was Republicans that made it happen,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in November.
Schumer has also been clear that Democrats will not seek compromise.
Thursday’s vote is “the last train out of the station,” he said. “What we need to do is prevent premiums from skyrocketing, and only our bill does it,” he said.
The health care shutdown
Despite perceiving it as a political triumph, the unsuccessful votes would represent a setback for Democrats. They had insisted on prolonging the benefits, which led to a six-week government closure in October and November, and this outcome also impacts the millions of individuals anticipating higher premiums starting January 1.
A number of moderate Democratic senators reached an agreement with Majority Leader John Thune concerning a future vote on healthcare, which offered no assurance of success, in return for their support to end the government shutdown. This occurred as the majority of Democratic senators advocated for continuing the shutdown while Republicans declined to engage in talks.
Maine Sen. Angus King, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats, said the group tried to negotiate with Republicans after the shutdown ended. But he said the talks became unproductive when Republicans demanded language adding new limits for abortion coverage that were a “red line” for Democrats.
“They’re going to own these increases,” King said of Republicans.
A plethora of plans, but little agreement
The GOP plan scheduled for a Senate vote on Thursday aims to substitute the tax credits with health savings accounts. This proposed alteration to the law, according to Republicans, would empower consumers with funds rather than directing them to insurance providers who presently receive the existing subsidies. Republicans have leveraged the impending lapse of the subsidies to reiterate their persistent objections to Obamacare and to make another attempt at reaching a consensus on the path forward.
Thune revealed on Tuesday that the Republican conference had resolved to consider the legislation spearheaded by Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health, Labor, Education and Pensions Committee, and Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, the head of the Senate Finance Committee, despite numerous Republican senators putting forth alternative proposals.
Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, has pledged a vote in the House for the upcoming week. During a conference meeting on Wednesday, Republicans debated various approaches, yet a clear agreement seemed absent.
Party moderates who might face challenging reelection campaigns in the coming year are pushing Johnson to find a way to extend the subsidies. However, more conservative members are pushing for a complete revision of the legislation.
Representative Kevin Kiley, a Republican from California, has advocated for a short-term continuation, suggesting it might pave the way for additional actions concerning healthcare.
Should they not take action and medical expenses increase, the public's opinion of Congress “will get even lower,” Kiley stated.
___
Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report.
