New Week, No New Plan: ACA Subsidies Issue Takes Center Stage

A discharge petition, several bipartisan proposals and a Senate vote that will undoubtedly fail: Lawmakers are scrambling this week to try to pass something that will extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year.

This week is seen as critical for addressing the subsidies, as the Senate is set to vote on a Democratic proposal — a vote that was scheduled as part of the deal to reopen the government. But Republicans say what Democrats are offering is a non-starter and there is no consensus or real momentum around any of the flurry of proposals flying around Capitol Hill right now.

The one person who could potentially help move the needle is President Donald Trump, but he hasn’t helped lawmakers out much so far. He’s given them little direction on a health care plan, though he’s endorsed putting ACA subsidy funds into health savings accounts instead.

“We’ve been speaking in the Senate a lot — both parties in the Senate. Everyone’s got their ideas. We’re just trying to thread a needle to get to 218 and 60. That’s it,” said Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, one of the lawmakers who introduced legislation to deal with the expiring subsidies.

Senate Democrats, meanwhile, have proposed a clean three-year extension of the tax credits that Republicans say they won’t support.

“Republicans have one week to decide where they stand … Any Republican who claims to care about premium increases on Jan. 1 has only one realistic path and that’s to support our simple, clean three-year bill for an extension. If Republicans block our bill, there’s no going back,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.

Ryan Wrasse, spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, called a clean extension “a wildly unserious proposal that has been repeatedly rejected.” “If enacted, the Democrats’ plan would allow people who make north of $500K per year to continue receiving these meant-to-be-temporary Biden COVID bonuses,” Wrasse said in a post on X.

Republicans, from the start, have made clear they want to see an income cap on the subsidies to reform the whole program and who qualifies.

“We know we need a cap on income,” Sen. John Curtis said Sunday on CNN. “That’s not a serious effort if you’re not willing to talk about, look – we know there’s flaws with these and we’re not willing to change those flaws.”

In the House, things are more complicated. There are competing bipartisan proposals floating around, each expected to address different issues with the tax credits and each extending them for different amounts of time. Further complicating matters for House Speaker Mike Johnson is that a good percentage of his conference would simply rather see the subsidies expire.

Still, Johnson told reporters he plans to put a proposal on the floor for a vote, but hasn’t said which proposal he plans to put forward. Johnson’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

“Whether you’re a liberal, progressive Democrat or Republican, ACA has got some really profound problems, and it needs to be cleaned up,” Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew said.

Regardless, Democrats are moving forward with a discharge petition that would extend the tax credits — with no Republican support so far.

“All we need is four to join us, and we can get an up-or-down vote on passing a three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits to protect and save the health care of working-class Americans,” Jeffries said Wednesday on CNN.

Another bipartisan group of 35 House lawmakers, led by Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer and Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans, introduced a two-year health care proposal Thursday morning called “CommonGround 2025,” and they’re calling for a vote on it in both chambers by Dec. 18. The proposal includes a one-year extension of enhanced premium tax credits with income caps and measures intended to crack down on fraud. It also extends the open enrollment period until March 26 of next year and tees up more health care reforms for votes in July 2026.

“Although many bills have appeared to offer similar ideas, we wanted to propose more of a bipartisan framework to make it clear to the House and Senate leadership that defined ideas do exist that both sides of the aisle support,” Kiggans said Thursday in a news conference.

The group was scheduled to meet with Sen. Bill Cassidy, chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, on Wednesday night to try to chart a way forward on bipartisan health care legislation. So far, nothing concrete has been decided.

“Sadly, this is not really a serious effort,” Curtis said of a clean extension. “Just to extend three years something that has not been working that was meant to be temporary from the beginning is not a good vote.”