• Enhanced ACA subsidies expire December 31, threatening premium spikes of thousands of dollars for 22 million Americans
• Multiple competing Republican plans lack consensus while Speaker Johnson shows no interest in floor votes
• Senate Democrats announce forced vote on three-year extension that faces certain GOP opposition

WASHINGTON, D.C. (TDR) — Frustration is mounting among moderate House Republicans as various competing health care plans appear to be going nowhere, with less than 10 working days left on the calendar before millions of Americans see their health insurance premiums spike dramatically.

A small but animated group of GOP centrists is imploring party leaders to extend the ObamaCare tax credits set to expire at the end of the year. But they have run into a wall of opposition from Speaker Mike Johnson, who remains cold to the idea, and a larger group of conference conservatives who are openly fighting to let the subsidies expire.

“It’s just bad to go into a very tight midterm election and be hurting, you know, 20 some million people in the country,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey said.

“To do this is buffoonery. I want to be in the majority next year, and this makes that much harder because of the districts that are so close.”

Multiple Plans, No Consensus

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The resistance from leadership has prompted warnings from a growing number of Republican moderates that their thin majority will be lost in next year’s midterms unless GOP leaders hold their noses and extend the enhanced payments to prevent a spiral in out-of-pocket costs for more than 20 million Americans.

There are a handful of competing ideas circulating among Republicans, but no consensus on which plan to support. Rep. Jen Kiggans of Virginia has introduced both one-year and two-year extension proposals. Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska and Jeff Hurd of Colorado have championed a separate two-year plan. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania is racing to finalize yet another two-year proposal.

None has won a commitment from GOP leaders to get a vote on the floor, a mistake in the eyes of the moderates.

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“The details of each individual plan are not as important as the desire to get it done,” Van Drew said. “I hate ObamaCare. It’s wrong, it’s bad, it’s corrupt. However, in the short term: Fix it immediately, as quickly as you can.”

White House Framework Collapses

The White House floated its own plan to temporarily extend the subsidies for two years, paired with reforms similar to those included in the various House proposals. But the leaked framework was quickly pulled after a mountain of internal GOP criticism.

President Trump has opposed extending the ObamaCare tax credits in their current form, stating on social media that he will only support “sending the money directly back to the people” rather than funding what he called the “money sucking” insurance industry.

Johnson further undercut efforts to build momentum behind a particular plan when he told reporters Thursday that GOP leadership would be presenting its own plan, with a vote by the end of the month. But with the calendar running out, skepticism remains high among moderates that any action will materialize.

Democrats Force Senate Showdown

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Thursday that Democrats will force a vote next week on a “clean” three-year extension of the enhanced ACA funds. The legislation is all but guaranteed to fail given widespread Republican opposition.

“The path forward that has the greatest number of votes in both the House and the Senate is a three-year extension,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters. “Time has run out.”

But Republicans dismiss the Democratic approach as politically motivated rather than substantive. “I don’t buy the three-year clean extension. That’s DOA,” Bacon said. “Most of us want a one- or two-year extension that has some modifications on incomes, on various other things.”

Meanwhile, a bipartisan House group of 15 Republicans and 20 Democrats led by Kiggans and Rep. Josh Gottheimer released a competing framework Thursday for a two-year extension with stricter income limits and new guardrails. But without Johnson’s support, the only viable path would be a discharge petition requiring 218 signatures to bypass leadership.

The enhanced subsidies, first passed during the pandemic, cap premiums for a benchmark ACA plan to 8.5% of income. Without an extension, some enrollees could see their monthly premiums double or triple, with a family of four earning $85,000 potentially facing an additional $2,400 annually.

Will Republican inaction on health care subsidies become the defining issue that costs the party its House majority in 2026?

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