But the competing bills from Democrats and Republicans will both likely fail, leaving less than a week before lawmakers head home for the year. It's not clear what will happen next.
Some GOP lawmakers said they thought failure could set the stage for bipartisan negotiations through Christmas and into January to find a solution to curb health insurance premiums.
"What would be nice is if we can keep working on this and ideally get to something where we have most of our guys and most of the Dems so it's truly bipartisan," said Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.).
But the enhanced subsidies expire Dec. 31, and millions of people who rely on them could see their premium payments spike as a result. A plan passed next year would likely be messy— it would have to be retroactive and allow people to re-enroll in insurance plans.
States and the federal government would also need to track down the people who decided to forgo insurance completely because of the cost and inform them of new options.
Faced with disagreements within his own conference, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) had considered not putting any Republican health care reform plan on the floor for a vote.
But the GOP leader came under heavy pressure from vulnerable and swing-state colleagues to let them vote on a GOP alternative to a Democratic-drafted bill to extend enhanced health insurance subsidies for three years.
Instead of an extension of the enhanced ObamaCare subsidies, Republicans will vote on a proposal from Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) to convert them into contributions to health savings accounts (HSA).
"It actually does make health insurance premiums more affordable. It drives down, according to the Congressional Budget Office, premiums by double-digit levels," Thune told reporters at a press conference.
"We'll see where the Democrats come down on that," he said.
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