Republicans have a mess on their hands over health care subsidies – Axios

Axios, 24 hours ago – Politics & Policy

Republicans have a mess on their hands over health care subsidies – By Stef W. Kight,Kate Santaliz, and Hans Nichols

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson are both considering votes on GOP health care priorities next week — if they can figure out what those priorities are.

Why it matters: Democrats are unified in their demand for a three-year extension of Affordable Care Act’s enhanced subsidies, which expire Dec. 31. Republicans are still divided and debating their counter offers.

• Johnson (R-La.) has said he hopes to reveal a House GOP health care package early next week, though some sources are skeptical that will happen.
• Thune (R-S.D.) has promised Democrats a vote on their health care bill next week. But his conference is still in the idea stage on their counters, which are more likely to come as amendment or unanimous consent votes rather than a single broader GOP package.

Between the lines: Don’t expect any health care package to pass next week.

• The real question is whether the voting exercise in the Senate and maybe the House fuels ongoing bipartisan dealmaking — or hampers it.

Zoom in: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is circulating a plan that would extend the expiring subsidies — but with a $200,000 income cap and no zero-dollar premium packages, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports.

• Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) told Axios he hopes a GOP package will include moving the expiring subsidies into health care savings accounts and adding his bipartisan bill requiring more price transparency.
• Republicans are also again eyeing changes known as cost-sharing reductions, aimed at lowering premiums, but could cut subsidies for some enrollees.
• Multiple senators described the conversations as broad and fluid, with no real consensus this week on any one, single GOP package. And Hyde protections continue to be a sore spot, with some Republicans demanding increased assurances that subsidies aren’t used for abortions.

In the House, Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) has been holding “listening sessions” with committee leaders and rank-and-file Republicans for weeks to find a consensus GOP plan.

• A bipartisan group of 35 centrist lawmakers , led by Reps. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) and Josh Gottheimer, unveiled a two-year extension of the ACA subsidies Thursday, but it doesn’t have buy in from leadership.
• “We’re going to come up with something that I think even people like Jen would support,” Scalise said Thursday.

• House GOP leaders have also discussed proposals that would not extend the enhanced subsidies, but instead expand Association Health Plans, where employers band together to purchase health coverage for workers.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Republicans have a mess on their hands over health care subsidies

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CNN – What Matters – November 10, 2025

Editor’s Note: Below is a re-formatted post from a CNN Newsletter. It will appear online soon. The newsletter is sent first, then it is published online in a later cycle. I’ve posted it here, because of my comments. This 8-member “deal” on the side is a huge mistake. Read more below. –DrWeb

: Democrats seethe over shutdown deal.
They might be celebrating in a year

The likely end to the longest-ever government shutdown has Democrats turning on each other in searing anger.
 
The prevailing opinion appears to be frustration that eight senators freelanced a deal with Republicans.
 
While it does not guarantee the extension of expiring enhanced subsidies for Obamacare health insurance plans, it does guarantee there will be a Senate vote on that subject.
  
Sen. Tim Kaine, who helped finalize the deal, defended it on CNN Monday. Kaine noted that the White House had pledged to rehire federal workers fired during the lapse in government funding and to bar further reductions in force at least until January 30.
 
That’s not good enough for many Democrats who were feeling powerful after victories in mostly blue-state elections last week. They wanted to hold out for more guarantees from the White House, even as the nation’s air travel system started to buckle under the strain of air traffic controllers not being paid and people who rely on the government for assistance buying food went without.
 
There’s no guarantee that House Speaker Mike Johnson will allow a House vote on extending the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, but Kaine argued that if senators pass it with bipartisan support and Johnson ignores it, the GOP will pay a political price.
 
“Their midterm election next year would look a lot worse even than the shellacking they got last week in Virginia and elsewhere,” Kaine said.
 
The expiring enhanced subsidies, according to analysis by KFF, will be felt more in states that voted for Trump in 2024, and could result in millions of people opting not to have health insurance at all.
 
This shutdown, assuming it ends and is not repeated in January, won’t be top of mind for voters in midterm elections next year, but it’s still worth taking a look at what happens at the ballot box after a shutdown.

DrWeb’s Comment…

“While it does not guarantee the extension of expiring enhanced subsidies for Obamacare health insurance plans, it does guarantee there will be a Senate vote on that subject.” –article quote

I have highlighted in bold a quote from the article. It is embarassing to post the truth for these eight renegades. They got scammed, including Catherine Cortez Masto, one of my Senators I used to support in Nevada.

To believe that quote, is to believe or trust Trump. I don’t.

These 8 should have known better. I don’t believe or trust the Trump Senate. I don’t.

It won’t vote on the subject, or the votes will vote to remove Obamacare and/or the subsidies, surprise surprise.

All the damn signs point to Trump erasing Obamacare (ego thing to do), and replacing it –after many years of asking GOP for any national health plan, they will dump something out and call it National Health Care by Trump.

Watch, wait, Trust me. They are screwed, these 8, we are screwed by the failure to support the Democratic Party (outliers not welcomed). All those closed days –accomplished NOTHING. Because of these 8 fools. –DrWeb

#americans #cnn #democrats #eightSenators #federalGovernmentShutdown #governmentShutdown #healthCare #newsletter #republicans #shutdownDeal #subsidiesInJeopardy #timKaine #trump #uSHouseOfRepresentatives #uSSenate #voters #whatMatters #whiteHousePledges #zacharyBWolf