Senate Democrats push for health subsidy extension with GOP counter under wraps

WASHINGTON (CN) — Senate Democrats on Thursday formally rolled out their proposal to extend Affordable Care Act health care subsidies, teeing up a crucial political fight weeks before the program is slated to expire.

But the Democratic plan has already drawn sharp criticism from Republicans, who have said they are drawing up a counteroffer that would pair such an extension with major reforms — and who appear likely to render the Democrats’ proposal dead on arrival in the Senate.

The pandemic-era health care subsidies and their looming expiration date have for months been a central issue for Democrats, who cited Republicans’ refusal to negotiate on the matter as the primary reason for the recent extended government shutdown. And on Thursday afternoon, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer unveiled his party’s much-vaunted proposal for keeping the tax credits online.

The Democratic plan would see ACA subsidies extended for three years, a so-called “clean” continuation of the credits which Schumer framed as a simple fix that would save thousands of Americans from increased health insurance costs.

“This is one of the most important votes we’re going to have in this whole Congress, because right now Republicans — even a small number of them — could vote yes and avoid the health care cliff that so many Americans are so worried about,” the Democratic leader said during a news conference.

Roughly a dozen Senate Republicans would need to back Democrats’ proposal to get it through the upper chamber. But so far, GOP leaders have opposed a clean extension to the ACA subsidies.

“Democrats want a 3-year extension on Biden’s Covid Bonus Payments with ZERO reforms to address the waste, fraud, abuse and corruption,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasson wrote in a post on X Thursday. “They want to send $100 billion from taxpayers to big insurance companies.”

Republicans in both the House and Senate have said that they are drafting their own proposal that would package the tax credit extensions with reforms. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday that his colleagues were “coalescing” around a bill.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is reportedly preparing the lower chamber’s counterpart legislation for next week, but a final draft appears far off. The lead House Republican told reporters on Tuesday that his conference was “moving forward” but cautioned that health care was a “complex” issue and that he was working with a slim majority.

“We’re pulling those ideas together,” he said. “There will be a Republican response to this. I can’t project in advance what that will be … but you will see our sleeves rolled up and that work being done in earnest this week as we bring all of that together.”

Schumer, however, was adamant on Thursday that his GOP colleagues get on board with the Democratic proposal. He accused them of having no concrete plan for rescuing the heath care subsidies and framing his party’s legislation as the “last chance” to extend the program before it expires Jan. 1.

“It’s the most major issue affecting the American people, and they can’t get their act together,” Schumer said of Republicans. “They have no unity; they have no consensus. They don’t even have concepts.”

And he bristled at the idea that his plan was a non-starter with Senate Republicans, swatting down questions about whether Democrats should have made a more palatable option that could secure the necessary votes.

“It’s not a non-starter,” the top Democrat fumed. “They have no plan, they have no unity, they have nothing — and you’re saying why don’t Democrats do something? We are doing something.”

Schumer argued that the three-year ACA credit extension was the “quickest, easiest, simplest way” to address the program’s looming expiration. “We can talk about other things down the road,” he added. “This is the only solution to avoid the January 1 cliff, plain and simple.”

The Senate is expected to vote on the Democrats’ health care plan next week.

During the monthlong government shutdown, Democrats repeatedly said that they would only vote to fund federal programs under a bill that also included an extension on the ACA tax credits. Republicans, for their part, refused to negotiate across the aisle.

A small coalition of Democratic lawmakers ultimately agreed to vote for a short-term funding bill to reopen the government, following a commitment from Republicans that they would hold a vote on extending the subsidies. Critics of the deal, however, pointed out that Democrats had not secured their longstanding demand that the GOP guarantee such an extension would pass.

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