The GOP bill includes market reforms to lower health care premiums but does not extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies.
The House will vote on a Republican health care plan that does not include an extension of the expiring enhanced tax credits for Obamacare, a decision by GOP leaders that produced some dissension within the party.
The Dec. 17 vote is the latest development in the battle over the Affordable Care Act Marketplace, popularly known as Obamacare, and certain COVID-19-era subsidies that are set to expire this month.
Republicans are pitching their bill, the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act, as a set of reforms that will lower the cost of health insurance across the board.
The GOP plan would leave the original Obamacare subsidies in place while allowing the temporary enhanced subsidies, instituted in 2021 as a response to the COVID-19 health emergency, to expire.
Democrats, fearing that many Americans will be unable to afford health insurance without the enhanced subsidies, are pushing for a three-year extension.
Some Republicans argued for a vote on a one- or two-year extension of the enhanced subsidies paired with some reforms, but GOP leaders opted against it.
“We looked for a way to try to allow for that pressure release valve, and it just was not to be,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters on Dec. 16.
Undaunted by the rejection, some House Republicans continued to push for a House vote on extending the enhanced subsidies.
“I don’t think we’re done yet with it,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told reporters on Dec. 16. “I like the measures that we put on the floor, but I also think we need an extension [of the enhanced subsidies].”
“This is not about politics or party. This is about actually delivering on an issue that impacts 24 million Americans,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) wrote on social media on Dec. 15.
Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) each proposed amendments to the GOP plan that mirror bipartisan bills they’d separately introduced in the House.
Fitzpatrick proposed an amendment to the GOP bill that would extend the enhanced subsidies for two years, lower the income eligibility limit for the subsidies, crack down on fraud, and create an option for part of the subsidy to be placed in a Health Savings Account.
The Fitzpatrick amendment was ruled out of order by the House Rules Committee on Dec. 16 because it did not include provisions to pay for the proposed actions.
Kiggans proposed a similar amendment calling for a one-year extension of the enhanced subsidies with a lower income eligibility threshold and anti-fraud measures. Kiggans’s amendment included provisions to pay for the measures.
The Kiggans amendment failed in the House Rules Committee, meaning that it cannot be introduced in the House for a vote by the whole body.
As it stands, the House will vote on a GOP bill built on five major provisions to reduce the cost of and broadening access to health insurance.
They include requiring greater transparency in prescription drug pricing, providing federal funding to reduce the co-payments and deductibles paid by some Obamacare customers, and making it easier for businesses that self-insure their employees to buy stop-loss insurance.
The bill would also make it easier for small employers and self-employed people to leverage the buying power of a larger organization by joining association health plans, and improve the ability of employers to contribute pre-tax funds for employees to purchase their own coverage.
Republicans said the changes would dramatically reduce the cost of health insurance.
“We’re putting forth the cost-sharing reductions, … and it’s estimated that these plans will go down 11 percent,” Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) said, adding that other provisions could reduce the premiums an additional 5 percent.
“What you put in this bill is junk insurance,” Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), said in a Dec. 16 Rules Committee Hearing, adding that the changes could drive people to purchase low-cost health insurance that does not provide adequate coverage.
