Republicans plan to let Obamacare subsidies lapse, threatening coverage for 24 million Americans

US House Speaker Mike Johnson said the House of Representatives would not vote to extend the enhanced tax credits for Obamacare, leaving more than 22 million Americans at risk of losing their health insurance.

He added that instead the GOP planned to introduce its own health care legislation, as Senate Republicans prepared to vote on their own plan on Thursday.




Johnson told reporters, “In the coming days, what you’re going to see is the other party, the Republican Party, continuing to do the important work that we’ve already begun to actually lower the cost of health care and reduce fraud.” He went on, “Democrats won’t, remember, they don’t actually want to fix this problem,” and said, “But you’re going to see a package come together that’ll be on the floor next week.”

Anywhere between 22 million and 24 million Americans receive their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplace. In 2021, the Biden administration expanded tax credits for the marketplace during the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act extended the subsidies for an additional three years until the end of this month.

On Thursday, Senate Republicans were set to vote on legislation by Senators Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho).

The bill would transfer some of the subsidy money into health savings accounts to purchase bronze or catastrophic health care plans and would ban the funds from being used for abortions or gender transition care.

It would also prevent transition care from being deemed an essential health benefit for plans sold on the ACA marketplace and bar Medicaid from covering either service. Republican leaders had previously attempted to insert similar language in the One Big, Beautiful Bill, but it failed.

The plan faced significant opposition in the Senate, where Democrats almost uniformly opposed the legislation and 60 votes would be required to advance it. “I mean, if the Senate can’t move something with 60 votes, I mean, that seems to be an even bigger problem,” Representative Dusty Johnson of South Dakota told The Independent.

Senator Susan Collins said she was still examining the specifics of the Cassidy-Crapo proposal, and Senator Lisa Murkowski added, “A lot of us still have questions about implementation of some of it, but I think it's important that the Republicans are hopefully going to be putting a plan out You need one.”

Meanwhile, many House Republicans, including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, criticised Johnson for not producing a plan to prevent premiums from doubling or even tripling for their constituents. Health care was one of a number of pressing items for the GOP, which controls both the House and the Senate. Congress must also pass its annual defence bill, the National Defence Authorisation Act, before the end of the year, and will again vote on legislation to keep the govt open at the end of January.