The Senate is unlikely to pass either of the two healthcare bills they’re voting on Thursday. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
The Senate is scheduled to vote Thursday on two competing healthcare plans meant to address healthcare costs likely to rise in the new year with the expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits.
Democrats and Republicans have each put forth their own healthcare plans, but neither are likely to pass, NPR reported.
The Democrats’ plan includes a three-year extension of enhanced ACA subsidies beyond the Jan. 1 expiration date. The proposal would also limit health insurance premiums under the ACA to 8.5% of the policyholders’ incomes.
The enhanced subsidies were put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the 2021 American Rescue Plan.
To pass, Democrats would need at least 13 Republicans to vote in favor of the plan.
The expiring subsidies were the crux of a six-week government shutdown this fall. Democrats refused to vote in favor of a House Republican-drafted stopgap funding measure without including language that would see the subsidies extended beyond December.
Without the subsidies, healthcare premiums through the ACA were forecast to more than double in some cases. The Congressional Budget Office projects about 3.8 million will drop coverage annually over the next eight years without the additional subsidies. In 2025, a record 24 million Americans got their health insurance through the healthcare marketplace.
“We have 21 days until Jan.1,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “After that, people’s healthcare bills will start going through the roof. Double, triple, even more.
“There is only one way to avoid all of this. The only realistic path left is what Democrats are proposing — a clean, direct extension of this urgent tax credit.”
Republicans, however, refused to consider the subsidies as part of the continuing resolution. Ultimately, Republicans agreed to consider a separate healthcare vote as a tradeoff to reopening the government.
The Republican plan, unveiled Tuesday by Sens. Bill Cassidy and Mike Crapo, doesn’t extend the subsidies but provides $1,500 health savings accounts for those earning less than 700% of the poverty level.”
“It delivers the benefit directly to the patient, not to the insurance company, and it does it in a way that actually saves money to the taxpayer,” Senate Republican leader John Thune said.
He described the Democrats’ plan as a “partisan messaging exercise” the idea that it would lower healthcare costs was a “tour of fantasy land,” according to ABC News.
This week in Washington
President Donald Trump makes remarks during a roundtable meeting with high-tech business executives in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Wednesday. The president announced that the United States has seized an oil tanker near Venezuela and a revealed a new special corporate immigration gold card focused on keeping students in the United States. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo
