Speaker Mike Johnson will block a push by moderate House Republicans for a vote on renewing expiring Obamacare subsidies, quashing a last-ditch effort to head off a spike in insurance premiums for more than 20 million Americans.
The Republican speaker's decision guarantees enhanced Affordable Care Act premium credits expire at the end of the year. Democrats have made clear the congressional Republicans' refusal to extend the subsidies will figure prominently in a midterm congressional campaign focusing on the high cost of living.
A band of swing-district moderates had pushed for a vote this week on adding an extension of the expiring subsidies to Republican health care legislation that the House plans to vote on Wednesday.
That would be the last opportunity for renewing the subsidies this year, with lawmakers planning to leave Friday for a holiday break that will extend into the new year.
Johnson told reporters that he is enforcing House rules requiring cost of the extension be fully offset with spending cuts elsewhere and the spending cuts proposed to the group of moderates were not acceptable to them. The same House rules have been waived in the past including related to the $4 trillion Trump tax cut bill enacted over the summer.
"It was just not to be," Johnson told reporters of a deal on the amendment.
The Republican leader came under fire Tuesday afternoon at a closed-door meeting with swing-district moderates during which shouting could be heard in the hallway outside. Afterward, the GOP moderates said they would offer a new version of their plan to extend Obamacare premium credits paid for by other cuts to health spending.
Johnson wouldn't commit to allowing the plan a vote but said afterward some new ideas voiced in the meeting "could work." The speaker-controlled Rules Committee would decide later Tuesday, he said.
Johnson earlier predicted that the GOP would unite behind the House leadership health package which does not extend the subsidies. That bill would allow for cheaper plans to compete with Obamacare exchange plans, fund cost-sharing reduction payments and enforce greater drug price transparency. These policies would lower costs for all Americans not just those using Obamacare, Johnson said.
Johnson said extending the subsidies just exacerbates rising healthcare costs and blasted Democrats for demanding a three-year extension without any changes.
Democrats "are not trying to solve the cost problem, they are trying to hide it," Johnson said.
The political uncertainty surrounding the future of the Covid-era subsidies complicates matters for millions of consumers. Obamacare policyholders will on average see their premium more than double without the tax credit, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health research institute.
In most cases, Americans will lose the chance to obtain Obamacare insurance next year unless they commit before the open enrollment period expires Jan. 15. The deadline to secure coverage for the month of January was Monday.
A bipartisan group of senators convened Monday to launch a long-shot bid to extend the subsidies but acknowledged any vote would have to be pushed to January given the congressional schedule.
The dozen swing-district moderates who had been pushing the amendment could also force a House vote in January on renewing the ACA subsidies by signing a petition to bypass Republican leaders that Democrats started. The Democratic plan calls for a three-year extension. It is too late to force a vote before the Christmas recess however.
New York Representative Mike Lawler called Johnson's decision on the amendment "malpractice" and said that as a result moderates could back the Democratic plan.
Lawler and other GOP moderates signed two separate petitions to extend ACA subsidies for one or two years with new eligibility limits based on income. Democratic leaders have not endorsed either of those petitions, leaving them unable to get the 218 signatures needed to force votes.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer predicted Johnson's refusal to renew Obamacare subsidies would damage the GOP in the November elections.
"The American people will hold him and the Republicans accountable," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
— With assistance from Rachel Cohrs Zhang
