"When a few Senate Democrats voted to end the longest government shutdown in history last month, the one concession they secured from Republican leader John Thune was a mid-December vote on a measure to extend expiring Obamacare premium subsidies. The vote is now supposed to happen later this week, amid general acknowledgement that without action on the subsidies both premiums and out-of-pocket costs for over 20 million Americans are going to skyrocket in January."
"This will be a much bigger problem for Republicans than for Democrats, for three reasons: (1) Democrats have been hyperventilating over this "subsidy cliff" for months, placing it at the very center of their shutdown strategy; (2) it's part of a more general health care policy landscape in which the GOP is widely perceived as either feckless or cruel; and (3) Republicans run the entire federal government and their leader, Donald Trump, dominates political discourse 24/7."
A mid-December vote was secured to consider extending expiring Obamacare premium subsidies after some Senate Democrats agreed to end the government shutdown. Without action, premiums and out-of-pocket costs for more than 20 million Americans are projected to spike in January. The situation poses political risk mainly to Republicans because Democrats have emphasized the subsidy cliff, the GOP is broadly perceived negatively on health care, and Republicans control the federal government while the president dominates political discourse. Proposed Republican measures emphasize health savings accounts and small-business risk pools and would not extend subsidies even temporarily.
Read at Intelligencer
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