17 House Republicans joined Democrats on Thursday to pass a three-year extension of COVID-era Obamacare subsidies that Congress allowed to expire at the end of 2025.
The vote followed a move by nine moderate Republicans who backed a Democrat-led discharge petition to force consideration of the extension over objections from GOP leadership. The House-passed bill, estimated to add more than $80 billion to the deficit, is widely viewed as dead on arrival in the Senate, where Republicans blocked an identical three-year clean extension in December.
Some lawmakers have suggested the measure could nonetheless serve as a starting point for a broader compromise, and a bipartisan group of senators is also working on a narrower proposal that could revive the lapsed benefits with additional restrictions.
The battle over the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, enacted in 2021 by Democrats without a single GOP vote, has consumed Capitol Hill for months and triggered the record 43-day government shutdown last fall.
With no deal in sight, roughly 22 million people who benefited from the enhanced subsidies will see their healthcare costs rise. The prospect of cost increases prompted some House Republican moderates, such as Rep. Mike Lawler of New York and Reps. Robert Bresnahan, Brian Fitzpatrick and Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania, to join Democrats in forcing Thursday’s vote.
Notably, the subsidies were originally limited to households earning between 100% to 400% of the federal poverty level. However, former President Joe Biden’s signature domestic policy laws removed the upper-income cap, increased subsidies to cover a higher share of premiums, and, in some cases, reduced certain households’ premiums to zero.
Now, a bipartisan group of Senators is drafting a potential agreement to restore the enhanced tax credits for two years. Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio, a key negotiator, said Wednesday that the draft legislative text could be finalized as early as next week, according to The Hill.
One of the major sticking points in both chambers remains the Hyde Amendment, which restricts federal funding for abortions.
Republicans have demanded the codification of Hyde protections in ACA plans. Democrats argue that Obamacare already complies by requiring insurers to separate premiums for abortion-related services from other coverage, which pro-life advocates have criticized as simply an “accounting gimmick.”
President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged Republicans in Congress to be “flexible” on the issue to reach a healthcare deal, prompting backlash from pro-life groups and conservative Republicans. His comments came despite signing an executive order in January reaffirming the Hyde Amendment.
“Extending the subsidies without Hyde isn’t going to help Republicans ‘own’ the healthcare issue,” Gavin Oxley, media relations manager for Americans United for Life, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Instead, it alienates the majority of Americans who oppose being forced to fund abortion with their hard-earned tax dollars, risking not only the American moral conscience but the substantial cultural ground the pro-life movement has gained since Dobbs.”
Ahead of the vote, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America similarly warned Republicans that the “pro-life base must never be taken for granted, especially not in a mid-term election year.”
“Any and all votes to extend COVID-era Obamacare subsidies without Hyde protections will be a decisive factor in SBA Pro-Life America’s political engagement in both primaries and the general election in 2026,” the group said in a statement.
Despite Trump’s urging, there is little indication that House Republicans are prepared to compromise on Hyde.
“We are not gonna change the standard that we’re not gonna use taxpayer funding for abortion. I’m just not gonna allow that to happen,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Wednesday, according to NBC News.
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