It would expand association health plans, which allow small businesses to band together and purchase coverage, impose new transparency requirements on pharmacy benefit managers aimed at lowering drug costs, and fund ACA payments known as cost-sharing reductions. The Senate, which gridlocked on an ACA subsidy extension and competing GOP plan, isn't expected to take up the House package. But some of the ideas could resurface in late January, when Congress faces another deadline to keep the government funded.
Several moderates, facing tough reelection fights, have warned that they need to take action on preventing the subsidies from expiring. Democratic leadership is hopeful they will secure the remaining two signatures they need to force a vote, according to a senior House Democrat. The pressure comes as the House prepares to vote Wednesday on a "consensus" GOP health care package that does not include an ACA extension.
With two days until Congress's scheduled holiday recess, lawmakers will likely leave Washington without extending Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies. The enhanced subsidies for ACA marketplace plans will expire at the end of the year. Millions of Americans can expect a spike in their premiums, and some may see the price of their plans double or triple in the new year.
Trump has been dismissing negative polls about the economy as fake, including in Truth Social posts this week where he complained he's not getting enough credit for fixing the mess left by former President Joe Biden. When will I get credit for having created, with No Inflation, perhaps the Greatest Economy in the History of our Country? When will people understand what is happening? When will Polls reflect the Greatness of America at this point in time, and how bad it was just one year ago? he wrote on Truth Social this week. Probably when the economy's better. Maybe that's when it's going to happen. Come on now, Daniels said in response to Trump's question about getting credit.
If Republicans are trying to do a solve,' what they should probably do is boost ACA subsidies for another couple years, but include a bunch of riders that transition it out and make room for larger HSAs. In other words, provide people some sort of glide path toward a new future, as opposed to a hard stop. Hard stops in American politics typically create massive political blowback, and 2026 looks like it's going to be pretty ugly for Republicans, anyway.
Sarah Monroe once had a relatively comfortable middle-class life. She and her family lived in a neatly landscaped neighborhood near Cleveland. They had a six-figure income and health insurance through her job. Then, four years ago, when Monroe was pregnant with twin girls, something started to feel off. "I kept having to come into the emergency room for fainting and other symptoms," recalled Monroe, 43, who works for an insurance company.
With enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies due to expire within days, some Senate Democrats are scrambling to protect millions of Americans from getting the unpleasant holiday gift of spiking health insurance premiums. The CRFB says there's just one problem with the plan: it's not funded. "With the national debt as large as the economy and interest payments costing $1 trillion annually, it is absurd to suggest adding hundreds of billions more to the debt," CRFB President Maya MacGuineas wrote in a statement on Friday afternoon.
Hale said the scale of the hit for families losing ACA subsidies is likely to be severe if the subsidies are discontinued. It's going to mean that healthcare takes a bigger chunk out of their monthly budget, and that budget shift has got to come from somewhere, she said. So, for people who are currently renting and maybe saving up to buy a home, that (saving) progress might feel like the most discretionary part of their budget and probably would be a target.
We're learning President Trump is planning to unveil a new health care proposal. And at this point we're still waiting to know exactly what's in it, but we're told it could include a temporary extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are due to expire at the end of the year. They were at the center of the government shutdown.
It would put an income limit on who's eligible for the tax credits and require recipients to make a minimum premium payment, eliminating $0 premium plans that Republicans say fuel fraud. The plan also would encourage people to buy lower-premium options on the ACA exchange. For individuals who downgrade their coverage, the difference in costs would be distributed to an health savings account provided with taxpayer dollars.
Good morning. Gusts continue to pester, but we'll see a high around 71 eventually today. Windy overnight, too, with a low near 46. The Capitals host St. Louis tonight, and the Wizards visit Boston. You can find me on Bluesky, I'm @kmcorliss.19 on Signal, and there's a link to my email address below. Thanks for reading Washingtonian Today. If you know someone who might enjoy these roundups, please forward this email;your friend can get a free subscription here.
In the checkers board that is our government (no one here's playing chess), we have Democrats who enjoy pretending to put up a fight, only to cave at the first whiff of a breeze, and we have Republicans who will, without fail, find a way to make everything about banning abortion. The House reconvenes today, November 12, to vote on the bill to reopen the government after the longest shutdown in U.S. history. On Sunday night, seven Democrats and one Independent broke ranks to vote with Republicans on the spending bill.
A discharge petition forces a vote on any piece of legislation if it is signed by 218 House members, effectively giving the minority party the power to bypass the majority on bipartisan bills. Democrats have 214 members in the House, meaning four House Republicans would have to sign on even if they get all their members to do so. Driving the news: House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) and Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) announced the strategy
Democrats have held out for weeks, demanding that Republicans work with them to extend expiring ACA tax credits in exchange for funding the government. Prolonged shutdown pain ultimately won out, with moderate Democrats accepting a promise of an ACA vote despite progressives and House Democrats adamantly warning against accepting a handshake deal. Driving the news: The final tally on the procedural vote was 60-40. Eight Democrats voted "yes" with Republicans, while Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was the lone GOP "no" vote.
It's doubtful, however, it will be implemented. I don't see Republicans, especially in the House, going along with this. It just doesn't work for the financial controls that the House wants to have on big spending. She continued: It's just a way of him talking. Again, it's something for him to throw out there, because he knows that the issue of the expiring subsidies for the Affordable Care Act is coming and very soon and it's having a negative effect on Republicans.
What to watch: Senate appropriators are hustling to finish language on a three-part appropriations package, with text expected to be released as soon as Thursday evening, sources tell Axios. It's a key part of Republicans' latest offer to Democrats, which includes: Passing a stopgap funding continuing resolution until at least December 19th (final date TBD). Fully funding military construction, Veterans Affairs, the Agriculture Department and the legislative branch through the next fiscal year - taking programs like WIC and SNAP out of the shutdown equation. A promise of a vote on some kind of bill to extend the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies - the exact substance of which is still a major question mark.
I think you've been extremely eloquent in this shutdown and talking about the issue of Obamacare subsidies. I'm a Republican too. We don't agree on everything, but we both agree we have to extend these subsidies at least for a year because you just can't pull the rug out from under people who are going to see their premiums skyrocket. You talked about your own family, how you'd be impacted, but I imagine many of the 700,000 constituents you represent.
More than 82,000 people in Alameda County get their health insurance through Covered California. But when open enrollment begins on Nov. 1, they'll be facing steep rate hikes. Covered California is the state's health exchange, created by the Affordable Healthcare Act, signed into law 15 years ago by President Barack Obama. The vast majority of the 24 million Americans who get health coverage through these state exchanges receive significant premium subsidies that sunset at the end of this year.
There are some decent, honest Republicans, Sanders said. And you know, in American society, we believe in democracy. You're a conservative Republican. We disagree. So what? It's called America. We have different points of view. I gotta tell you thoughone of the things that has concerned me very, very much is that we are seeing the Republican party. Doing less of representing their districts and their states than just swearing allegiance to the President of the United States.
Democrats want to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies that millions rely on and undo health spending cuts from President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Warnock told Morning Edition that Georgians in rural areas have expressed concerns about losing access to health care. He said a small business owner told him she decided to close her business because paying for health insurance would be too expensive without ACA subsidies. The senator told NPR's Leila Fadel that the White House should "stop acting like these are pieces on a chessboard. These are people's lives."
Republicans and Democrats have been unable to get to a funding compromise. Republicans have accused Democrats of fighting for healthcare for illegal immigrants. Democrats are pushing for Affordable Care Act subsidies to be extended, arguing current expirations could lead to massive premium increases for citizens. If Republican Senators wanted to pass the CR and reopen the government they could, by using the nuclear option to override the 60 vote rule and pass the CR with a simple majority vote.
The illegal immigrant is just a red herring that's designed to try and prevent people from talking about the real issue, which is how do we provide health insurance for people in this country, Shaheen said. You know, I say a little detail, you say red herring, but the fact is, Senator, that it exists, Jones responded. No, listen, I'm agreeing with you, she said. You're trying to make an issue where there isn't one. We agree! Illegal immigrants should not be getting access to the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
Obamacare premiums are poised to jump next year, driven by expiring federal subsidies and the highest proposed rate hikes since 2018, setting up a pocketbook shock for millions of marketplace enrollees, unless Congress intervenes. The core driver is the scheduled sunset of enhanced premium tax credits at year-end, which could lift out-of-pocket bills by roughly 75%, on average, for subsidized customers on top of insurers' underlying rate increases for 2026, according to analyses cited by both The New York Times and Fortune.
