WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday that Democrats will force a vote next week on a bill to extend expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits and prevent health insurance premiums from skyrocketing for millions of Americans.
Schumer said it will be a “clean” three-year extension of the enhanced ACA funds that first passed in 2021, designed to cap premiums for an average marketplace plan to 8.5% of income, and he said “every single Democrat will support it.”
Schumer’s legislation is all but guaranteed to fail, as many GOP senators want the ACA funds to expire, arguing that the Covid-era subsidies were meant to be temporary and are no longer needed.
“Republicans have one week to decide where they stand: Vote for this bill and bring health care costs down, or block this bill and send premiums skyrocketing,” Schumer said on the floor. “That’s what’s at stake when we vote next week. It’s going to be one of the most important votes we take.”
The vote is the product of a promise that Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., made to Democrats in discussions to end the record-long government shutdown last month. Thune reiterated Tuesday that the Senate will vote next week on any bill Democrats propose — but it will require 60 votes to pass, meaning at least 13 Republicans would need to support it.
Some Republicans say they’re open to extending the ACA funding with modifications and stricter limits, but the two sides have failed to reach an agreement. And Republican demands for tougher abortion restrictions tied to any ACA funds have been dismissed as a nonstarter by Democrats.
Still, the issue has deep political ramifications, with costs expected to soar for millions of Americans on the ACA marketplaces. Democrats see it as a potent weapon to use in their campaigns for the 2026 elections if no solution is reached.
Schumer previewed his party’s message on the floor, calling his bill the “only path” to preventing insurance costs from rising significantly next month.
“People back home will be watching what Republicans do, and the American people are running out of time before January 1,” he said. “Make no mistake, our bill is the last chance Republicans will get before Jan. 1 to prevent premiums from skyrocketing.”
Thune did not mention health care during his floor speech Thursday, but told reporters two days earlier, after a GOP meeting, that it is still a work in progress. Republicans have proposed a variety of ideas to extend, redirect or end the ACA funds, but lack consensus internally about the way forward. They have not proposed a bill or a plan of their own.
Thune, who told reporters this week that he doesn’t see “a clear path forward” to a health care solution, said Thursday that Republicans are still deciding whether they’ll offer up their own health care legislation alongside the Democratic version.
“Still working that out,” he said. “We’ll see.”
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., referred to the money as “Biden’s Covid bonus payments” and slammed Democrats for seeking an extension of the premium tax credits “with absolutely no change to the law.”
Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, said he “would support an extension” but wants the money to be redirected to consumers. And he acknowledged the impasse between the two parties.
“Obamacare has failed in its in its spoken goal to give people more choices and lower cost,” he said. “The Democrats won’t acknowledge that fully. And many Republicans don’t want to do something to prop up Obamacare.”
Meanwhile, a bipartisan House group of 15 Republicans and 20 Democrats — led by Reps. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J. — released a competing health care framework Thursday for a two-year extension of the ACA funds alongside stricter income limits and new guardrails on the money.
But most House Republicans oppose that approach, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has shown no interest in bringing it to the floor. Its only viable path is for Republicans to use a “discharge petition” alongside Democrats to end-run Johnson and force it to a vote. But that would need 218 signatures, or a majority of the House, to succeed, and the GOP lawmakers who say they favor an ACA funding extension have not shown interest in going that route.
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, crafted the deal that caused eight Democratic caucus members to reopen the government in the hope of pursuing a health care compromise. Asked Thursday whether he still sees a path, King said plainly, “I don’t.”
He said the GOP demands for stricter abortion language, known as the Hyde amendment, are a dealbreaker.
“The Republicans have made Hyde a red line,” King told NBC News. “And that’s not going to work. If that’s what they need, it’s not going to work.”
