After a failure in the Senate, House GOP has its own health care proposal

After the Senate failed to advance any bills to address health care costs this week, Republicans in the House of Representatives were let go proposed legislation that would not extend expanded tax subsidies from the Affordable Care Act on Friday, but would make other changes that party leaders emphasize will improve Americans’ access to health care.

Time is running out for Congress to act. Once subsidies for Americans purchasing health care plans through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) expire at the end of the year, millions of Americans’ premiums will skyrocket.

Democrats have pushed to expand these enhanced tax credits to prevent premiums doubling or more.

The increased subsidies began in 2021 to make ACA marketplace plans more affordable for more Americans. The market emerged from health care reform that President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010 in a law that Republicans have long criticized.

Members of the House of Representatives have just four days left before their holiday recess begins on December 19. The Senate recess begins on December 20.

Friday’s proposal from House Republicans includes measures that would allow small businesses to jointly purchase insurance plans for their employees and impose new requirements on pharmacy benefit managers in an effort to lower drug costs.

Starting in 2027, federal payments known as cost-sharing reduction payments would be aimed at lowering premiums for some low-income Americans. Health plans that offer abortion coverage would be excluded.

The package will be voted on next week, House Speaker Mike Johnson said.

“House Republicans are tackling the real drivers of health care costs to provide affordable care, expand access and choice, and restore the integrity of our nation’s health care system for all Americans,” Johnson said in a speech. statement.

Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries rejected the proposal on Saturday.

“Mike Johnson just released a toxic Republican health care plan that is hurting everyday Americans,” Jeffries said wrote on X. “It fails to extend the ACA tax credits that expire this month. And it is a very heady proposal.”

A Democratic-led proposal in the Senate to extend subsidies for ACA plans for three years was joined by a handful of Republicans but failed to pass this week, as did a separate plan backed by Senate Republicans. Both bills failed to gain enough support to reach the actual 60-vote threshold in the chamber.

President Trump has advocated giving people money to pay for health care costs instead of tax breaks for ACA plans.

“I want the billions of dollars to go to people, not to the insurance companies,” Trump said late Friday at an event at the White House. “And I want people to go out and buy good health care for themselves.”

Senate Republicans’ plan included a proposal for people to get up to $1,500 in health savings accounts for Americans earning less than 700% of the federal poverty level, but the House Republican proposal does not include that language.

Under the Republican Senate proposal, the savings accounts, which cannot be used to pay premiums, would be paired with high-deductible insurance plans. Such health plans have an average deductible cost of approximately $7,000, according to an analysis by KFF, a health policy organization.

Democrats opposed the Republican Party’s bill, arguing it would not help Americans pay health care premiums. They also objected to language that would have placed restrictions on abortion and gender-affirming care.

Meanwhile, some Republicans have warned of that end Subsidies from the ACA could cost their party the midterm elections, citing concerned messages from their constituents. A few Republicans in the House look for ways to expand the subsidies, including by pushing for a vote in the House of Representatives over party leaders’ objections.