"The big miscalculation Democrats made in handling the recent government shutdown was their belief that Donald Trump could be induced to force an extension of soon-to-expire Obamacare premium subsidies on congressional Republicans as part of a deal to reopen the government. He never even agreed to negotiate on the subject. So instead, the booby prize Democrats won was a guaranteed Senate vote on the Obamacare subsidies by the second week in December."
"Compromise requires meeting somewhere in the middle and already some members of the GOP are doing the opposite - taking this new round of debate as a cue to dust off ideas that would roll back or repeal big pieces of Obamacare. And these efforts seem to have attracted the interest of Trump, who has been posting messages like "Obamacare Sucks" on social media."
Democrats expected Donald Trump to pressure congressional Republicans to extend expiring Obamacare premium subsidies as part of reopening the government, but Trump refused to negotiate. The immediate outcome is a promised Senate vote by the second week of December while the House offered no commitment and the Senate pledge remains vague. A limited one-year extension combined with Republican reforms (income caps, fraud prevention, enhanced HSAs) is possible, but GOP interest in rolling back Obamacare and Trump's rhetoric reduce prospects for compromise. Any durable fix will require 60 Senate votes, leaving millions of enrollees vulnerable to premium spikes.
Read at Intelligencer
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