Without legislation to extend the enhanced subsidies beyond this calendar year, ObamaCare health plans will be substantially more expensive.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said he's offered Democrats a vote on the enhanced subsidies if they support the GOP continuing resolution to fund the government—an indication that he's at least open to the idea of an extension.
Democrats, though, argue that merely agreeing to hold a vote on the subsidies after the government reopens is not enough to ensure Republicans keep their word and engage in good-faith negotiations.
But on the House side, GOP leaders aren't directly talking about the subsidies. Instead, they are talking about changing the entire health system.
When asked about a plan to address the anticipated premium spike, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on Monday that the subsidies mask a broken system and that Republicans are committed to making health care better and more affordable for Americans.
"The expiring ObamaCare subsidy at the end of the year is a serious problem," Johnson said. "If you look at it objectively, you know that it is subsidizing bad policy. We're throwing good money at a bad, broken system, and so it needs real reforms."
Johnson said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) is working with the chairs of three House committees to compile a Republican health care plan. He didn't say what the plan was or provide any details. But he highlighted past GOP plans, including one from the Republican Study Committee.
Republicans in recent days have brought up ideas like expanding health savings accounts, and they flaunted a provision in the House version of the tax-and-spending megabill on cost-sharing reduction reimbursements to private health plans, but it was stripped from the final version in the Senate.
Even if Republicans are seriously working behind the scenes on a health care overhaul, it would be a major stretch to take effect this year.
Which would bring them back to the same underlying issue: dealing with expiring subsidies.
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