The House and Senate will be heading home for the holidays after taking their last votes of the year on Thursday. That means the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies will officially expire as scheduled at the end of the month.
House Speaker Mike Johnson celebrated Wednesday evening after House Republicans passed a healthcare package that doesn’t extend those subsidies. “This is a big night in the House. The Republican Party just delivered on our promises once again. We passed a big, important healthcare bill that will bring down the cost of healthcare,” he told reporters, referring to the GOP’s “Lower Premiums for All Americans Act.”
The House-passed bill is expected to go nowhere in the Senate, but the healthcare battles will continue in both chambers. After four moderate Republicans signed on to a Democratic-led discharge petition yesterday, the House will also have to vote next month on a Democratic bill to extend the enhanced ACA subsidies for three years — or, potentially, a bipartisan compromise plan, if one is reached. Lawmakers continue to work toward a deal that can get backing from both parties and clear the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.
Johnson also promised that his conference would continue to focus on healthcare in 2026. “We’ll be back in January to do much more of this,” he said. “More policies, more ideas ahead, policy changes to fix the broken healthcare system.”
As the legislative efforts continue, the political messaging battle is also heating up as the calendar turns to a crucial midterm election year. “The messaging battle over the expiring subsidies is an important early test of the two parties’ unity and momentum on an issue — health care — that has the potential to define the midterm campaign,” Politico’s Amanda Chu writes. “The future of President Donald Trump’s policy agenda is at stake with Republicans defending narrow House and Senate majorities.”
The bottom line: The enhanced ACA subsidies are going to expire in less than two weeks and millions of Americans are expected to see their premium costs soar or lose coverage.