(The Center Square) – With millions of Americans expecting health insurance premium hikes in less than three weeks and no viable healthcare bills sitting in the U.S. Senate, House Republican leadership say they will introduce a comprehensive health care policy package before the year ends.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Wednesday that members have been compiling a package that “will be on the floor next week,” though he publicly offered no details on what it would include.
It is certain, however, to exclude any extension of the enhanced version of the Obamacare Premium Tax Credit, which Johnson accused Democrats of using as “a red herring.”
Congress temporarily expanded the PTC during the COVID-19 pandemic, and its reversion to original pre-pandemic levels after Dec. 31 will partially contribute to rising premiums in 2026. Johnson said Democrats’ bill to renew the pandemic-era expansion of the tax credits would merely prop up a “broken system.”
“They have no ideas, they have no desire to fix the broken system they created, they just want to subsidize it,” Johnson said. “This agenda does not lower health care costs – all it does is hide the cost of the failed law.”
The Senate will vote Thursday on both Democrats’ three-year extension of the enhanced PTC, and a last-minute bill from two Senate Republicans that would direct subsidies to health savings accounts instead.
Both bills are expected to fail, as Democrats’ proposal is devoid of any antifraud reforms to even tempt some Republicans to support it, and Republicans’ bill fails to cushion the blow of rising premiums.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a Wednesday presser that the vote on extending the subsidies will be “the moment of truth for Republicans here in the Senate.”
“This vote is going to be one of the most important votes that they take,” Schumer told reporters. “With just days left on the clock, the clearest, cleanest, easiest and best path left is the bill that Democrats are proposing.”
He called Senate Republicans’ alternative a “junk insurance thing” which “does absolutely nothing.”
“They’re just so embarrassed they have no plan, that they put in a really bad plan,” Schumer added.
Johnson, however, argued that the reverse is true, labeling Democrats’ hyperfocus on the expiring subsidies as “their entire affordability agenda in a nutshell.”
“When Democrats talk about health care affordability – this catchphrase that they have – they are talking about one thing and one thing only: they are talking about continuing handouts to big insurance companies,” he said.
Two investigations by the Government Accountability Office revealed systemic fraud risk and confirmed fraud in the enhanced subsidies. More than 90% of GAO’s fake applicants received coverage, with GAO noting that “agents and brokers have a financial incentive to maximize enrollments” under the current tax credit system.
