The Senate will vote today on competing measures to resolve the standoff over extending the expiring advanced subsidies for Obamacare.
Both are likely to fail along party lines.
The subsidies, officially known as enhanced premium tax credits, were created as a temporary measure in 2021 to blunt the economic impact of the COVID-19 national health emergency.
Originally offered for two years, the enhanced subsidies were extended for three years and will expire at the end of this month.
Democrats, fearing that allowing the subsidies to expire would cause financial hardship and lead millions of Americans to drop their health coverage, have proposed another three-year extension.
“Democrats have put forward the cleanest, fastest, most realistic solution, a three-year extension of the current tax credits,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Dec. 9.
Republicans, believing the billions spent on these additional subsidies have contributed to rapidly rising insurance premiums and become an opportunity for fraud, oppose an extension that does not deal with those issues.
“The bill [Democrats] are going to put on the floor will fail,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters on Dec. 9.
Republicans have proposed an alternative plan. It would replace the enhanced subsidies with a cash payment to eligible enrollees, to be placed in a Health Savings Account. The original Obamacare subsidies, distinct from the enhanced subsidies, would remain in place.
“Their phony proposal is dead on arrival,” Schumer said on Dec. 9.
The enhanced subsidies expanded eligibility for Obamacare, offering subsidies for wage earners well into the middle class.
Original Obamacare subsidies are open to people making between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level. That equates to a household income of between $32,150 and $128,600 for a family of four.
The enhanced subsidies increased the amount of the subsidies, removed the income limit, and capped out-of-pocket premium payments at 8.5 percent of household income. Some low-income enrollees are eligible for plans with no premium payment.
Obamacare enrollment more than doubled after the enhanced subsidies were introduced.
Democrats pushed for a permanent extension of the enhanced subsidies early in the fall, refusing to authorize continued spending to fund the government until Republicans agreed to negotiate over this and other health-care-related proposals.
Republicans refused to consider the extension.
After a 43-day government shutdown, eight Democratic Senators voted with Republicans to approve stopgap funding to reopen the government, but on the condition that they be given a vote on extending the subsidies this month.
Schumer revealed the Democrats’ proposal for a three-year extension on Dec. 4.
Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) released their plan on Dec. 8, and Republicans elected to present it for a vote alongside the Schumer plan on Dec. 11.
Other plans have been proposed by Senate Republicans, by bipartisan groups of House members, and by the House New Democrat Alliance.
BOOKMARKS
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—Stacy Robinso
