Obamacare subsidies that have dominated the conversation on Capitol Hill are set to expire after Congress failed to act, but a cohort of bipartisan senators are quietly working to find a solution for when lawmakers return next year.<\/p>\n
It has engulfed Congress since September and played a starring role in the longest-ever government shutdown. And both Republicans and Democrats tried, and failed, to pass their partisan plans to either extend or replace the Biden-era enhanced tax credits.<\/p>\n
They are guaranteed to expire, and millions of Americans who use the subsidies are set to experience hikes to their out-of-pocket costs for healthcare that can vary widely depending on the state.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Still, some in Congress haven\u2019t given up on the issue.<\/p>\n
Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, held bipartisan confabs last week as lawmakers readied to leave Washington, D.C., to hash out a framework for an Obamacare fix that could meet the desires of both sides of the aisle.<\/p>\n
There are several political landmines that the group will have to overcome, like Democrats\u2019 demands for a relatively clean, multiyear extension of the subsidies and Republicans’ desires to add income caps and anti-fraud measures.<\/p>\n
‘We have some momentum to enact a bipartisan bill that includes reforms,’ Collins said. ‘As you know, Senator Moreno and I convened an ideologically diverse group of both Democratic and Republican senators who met for nearly two hours on Monday night, and we’re now working on drafting a specific bill to incorporate those conversations that will include reforms as well as the two-year extension.’<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The plan has yet to see the light of day, but Collins and Moreno both already have a public proposal, as do several other lawmakers in the upper chamber.<\/p>\n
Their original plan, released earlier this month, would extend the subsidies by two years, put an income cap onto the subsidies for households making up to $200,000 and eliminate zero-cost premiums as a fraud preventive measure by requiring a $25 minimum monthly payment.<\/p>\n
That initial offering could give a glimpse into the final product, but there are still hurdles to getting a bill on the floor that could pass.<\/p>\n
Namely, Senate Republicans are largely against any kind of extension to the subsidies without major reforms and a built-in off-ramp to wean off the credits, which they say are rife with fraud and funnel money directly to insurance companies rather than patients.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also another wrinkle in the House, where Democrats and a handful of Republicans rebelled to force a vote on their own extension to the subsidies. That bill is expected to get a vote next month.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Lawmakers see it as changing the dynamic of negotiations in the Senate, but whether it ever makes it to a vote in the upper chamber is an open question.<\/p>\n
‘Well, we’ll see,’ Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said. ‘We\u2019ll obviously cross that bridge when we come to it.’<\/p>\n
Some Republicans in the upper chamber see the momentum building in the House as a pressure point on them that could further drive the conversation around the subsidies and, more broadly, healthcare.<\/p>\n
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said, ‘It will apply pressure on us, which isn\u2019t a bad thing.’<\/p>\n
‘I’m ready to start talking about healthcare at any time,’ Kennedy said. ‘I just don’t, I mean, I’m a pragmatist. I live in the real world, and I just don’t see a lot of appetite to make reforms. I just don’t \u2014 I see the vast majority of my Democratic colleagues just want an extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies.’<\/p>\n
And Senate Democrats welcome the development, given that the House\u2019s plan mirrors their own, three-year extension of the subsidies, which already failed in the upper chamber earlier this month.<\/p>\n
‘Well, it seems to me the basic proposition is, is it progress or not? And I think it is, because what we have felt all along is the only timely tool is the tax credits,’ Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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