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The Senate is expected to vote today on competing healthcare bills.
Democrats are pushing to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies to keep premiums affordable to ACA beneficiaries. A bipartisan bill to extend the subsidies has attracted 16 Republican co-sponsors, according to POLITICO.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who has backed no such plan, knows centrist Republicans may join with Democrats to back the so-called discharge petition to force a vote to extend the subsidies past their Dec. 31 expiration date.
With the deadline fast approaching, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said two competing plans will get votes on the Senate floor on Thursday, according to ABC News.
The Republican plan would do away with the enhanced tax credits. Instead, the money from the tax credits would be put in health savings accounts for those who purchase bronze-level or "catastrophic" plans on the ACA exchanges, the report said. The aim is to help Americans pay for out-of-pocket costs when publicity has centered around Obamacare premiums doubling in 2026 should the enhanced tax credits expire.
This plan was hammered out by Senate Republicans who previously couldn’t agree on a plan.
Under the GOP plan, individuals earning less than 700% of the federal poverty level would receive $1,000 in HSA funding for those between ages 18 and 49 and $1,500 for those ages 50-64, according to ABC News.
Neither bill is reportedly expected to have the support it needs to advance.
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