A key tax credit that lowers the cost of Affordable Care Act health insurance for millions of Americans is likely to expire by the end of the year, after House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday there would be no vote on extending those subsidies this week.
The House of Commons is out of session next week, meaning Johnson did not leave the door open for a later vote on the increased ACA premium support before it expires.
There’s still a chance that enough Republicans in Johnson’s majority caucus will agree to support a Democratic-led effort to force a vote on extending the Obamacare tax credit.
This tactic, a discharge petition, is the same one used recently to force a vote on a bill that would force the Justice Department to release its investigative files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“We looked for a way to make the pressure relief valve available, but we couldn’t,” Johnson, R-Louisiana, said at a news conference, referring to the impending aid deadline.
“In fact, we have been working on this issue all weekend, but in the end we were not able to come to an agreement,” he said.
House Republican leaders continue to push for a new cost-sharing plan that would make it easier for small employers to offer their own health plans. A vote on the proposal is scheduled for Wednesday.
“We will provide common sense solutions to lower insurance premiums for all Americans, all Americans,” Johnson said. “This will expand access to quality health care, give all Americans more choice and flexibility to choose the coverage that’s right for them, and bring more transparency to America’s health care system.”
But Democrats and some moderate Republicans continue to push for a vote on extending the Obamacare premium credit expansion.
Health policy research group KFF announced that approximately 22 million Americans, or more than 90% of all ACA enrollees, are receiving enhanced subsidies made available to increase coverage for reduced health insurance premiums during the COVID-19 pandemic.
KFF estimates that once the increased subsidies expire, people’s insurance premiums will more than double on average in 2026.
The deadline to enroll in ACA plan coverage in the 2026 Obamacare marketplace was this Monday.
Moderate Republicans who want to extend the credit are pushing a pair of bipartisan discharge petitions by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Josh Gottheimer (R-Denina) to force Johnson to vote on a health care bill to extend the credit with other reforms.
Following Mr Johnson’s statement on Tuesday, that effort now appears to be on life support.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York is pushing for his expulsion petition, signed by all 214 House Democrats.
Only four Republicans would need to split their party and sign his petition to force a vote on the bill extending the credit, but he has not yet supported either bipartisan option.
So far, Republicans have not announced their support, with the hope that Jeffries will support any of the bipartisan proposals.
“I’m angry for the American people. This is pure bullsh*t,” Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, a moderate Republican who advocates for an extension of the credit line, said after leaving the meeting.
“If Mr. Hakeem Jeffries was serious about this, he would actually speak in a press conference, sign a discharge, and force a vote,” Lawler said. “But he’s not, and that’s the problem.”
“Leaders of both parties have not taken reasonable steps to support a compromise,” said Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.), a sponsor of the discharge petition.
Kiley said Jeffries is instead “insisting that this clean three-year extension” of the tax credit is the only way forward. “There is no reform, it has already been rejected in the Senate, and it probably won’t become law if it passes the House anyway.”
Under Fitzpatrick’s proposal, the credits would be extended through 2027.
His petition has 24 signatures, far short of the 218 signatures needed to force a vote.
Mr. Fitzpatrick said Tuesday that he expected Mr. Jeffries’ discharge petition to gather 218 signatures.
