Some Republicans Break With Leaders on Saving ACA Subsidies
WASHINGTON—A growing number of Republicans in both the House and Senate are breaking with party leaders and saying the GOP should extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies, seeing that as the only way to avert big cost increases for millions of households next year and buy time for a bigger overhaul.
Republicans have fought for years to stop or curtail the 2010 health law, casting it as a failed program that props up big health insurers and fuels cost increases. But with enhanced ACA subsidies set to lapse next year, some Republicans across the political spectrum say they are willing to back a short-term extension.
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Already, some GOP lawmakers have sponsored or signed onto bills that would extend the tax credits for one or more years, while including changes designed to crack down on fraud and limit eligibility to exclude higher-income households. They include Sens. Susan Collins (R., Maine), Jon Husted (R., Ohio) and Roger Marshall (R., Kan.)—all of whom are up for election next year—and vulnerable House Republicans like Reps. Rob Bresnahan (R., Pa.) and Mike Lawler (R., N.Y.).
House Republican and Democratic centrists on Wednesday lined up to sign onto a discharge petition to extend ACA subsidies.
The Senate plans two healthcare votes Thursday: one on a GOP bill that would put as much as $1,500 a year into health savings accounts in lieu of providing subsidies to cover premiums, and the second on a Democratic plan that extends ACA subsidies for three years. Neither is expected to reach the 60 votes needed to advance, but the willingness of some Republicans to consider any form of ACA extensions has opened the door to possible talks if the partisan measures fail.
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Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio)—a onetime leader of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus—argued in a closed-door House Republican meeting that the party needed its own plan to temporarily extend the subsidies in tandem with more sweeping changes. If they didn’t, he warned, conservatives could be sidelined by centrists’ push to bring their own ACA extension to the floor.
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