House Republicans are eyeing a mix of plans to address healthcare costs as the expiration date for the Obamacare subsidies inches closer, but none of the options include an extension of those credits.
House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) long-awaited plan for Republicans to address healthcare is less of a cohesive bill and more of a selection of several possible avenues, according to reports. While centrist Republicans have joined or launched bills to extend the subsidies, conservatives and leadership have been staunchly opposed to an extension in any form.
In a closed-door meeting with the GOP conference on Wednesday, Johnson reportedly showed a presentation slide that included 10 possible options to address healthcare costs. Among them were health savings accounts, cost-sharing reductions, PBM reform, price transparency, and associated health plans.
TRUMP PARDONS AND COMMUTATIONS: NOTABLE ACTS OF CLEMENCY IN HIS SECOND TERM
As it often goes with pitching several options to a large group of various ideologies, Republicans have yet to find consensus on a concrete path forward.
This comes after committee chairmen, leadership, and members of the GOP doctors caucus gathered in Johnson’s office on Tuesday for a lengthy meeting on healthcare. Members leaving the meeting were tight-lipped and offered no comment or details on the discussions, with one stating “we’ll see” when it came to the party’s next steps.
But leadership is insistent that the GOP is working tirelessly to find a solution.
“Our committees have been working on very serious proposals, all focused on lowering costs for 100% of Americans … while also giving options to people who are trapped on affordable healthcare plans,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) said Wednesday. “Where Democrats want to keep them trapped, we want to give them options.”
He said Republicans plan to bring a “number of bills” that there is consensus on to the House floor next week for votes, noting that there are “still some areas that we don’t have full agreement on.”
“We’re going to keep working on those, and we’ve committed to work on those early in the next year,” Scalise said.
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said the GOP continues to “recycle old priorities.”
“The priorities that they laid out today in their conference meeting and in front of all of you previously are all old ideas, 10-15-year-old ideas that reflect where Republicans are, that basically say if you have money, you can put some money aside to help with your health are.”
Johnson blasted Democrats trying to “lecture” Republicans on healthcare, arguing that they are the ones who put the country in this position in the first place.
TRUMP GIVEN WEEK OF WINS AND FAKE SCANDAL: WHITE HOUSE REPORT CARD
“They broke the American health system,” Johnson said. “They caused premiums to skyrocket. And now they have the audacity to tell Republicans that the only way to save it is to give billions of dollars to health insurance companies, which would merely fuel a system that is ripe with fraud, waste, and abuse.”
“You cannot be an arsonist and a firefighter at the same time. … They have no desire to fix the broken system they created,” the speaker added. “They just want to subsidize.”
That analogy made its way into the Democratic caucus press conference on Wednesday. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) said Republicans created the healthcare affordability crisis, and their “proposals, quote unquote,” are like “an arsonist setting fire to a house and then bringing a garden hose to try and put out a five-alarm fire.”
In a statement, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said Republicans’ “half-baked plan” will cause millions of people’s premiums to skyrocket if the Obamacare tax credits are not extended. The campaign arm also criticized centrist House Republicans for not standing up to their conference on the subsidies.
“The so-called Republican moderates are falling in line behind Deputy Speaker Mike Johnson to force millions of Americans to face higher health care costs in the midst of an affordability crisis,” DCCC spokesman Justin Chermol said. “These extremists will be held accountable for their refusal to act.”
The speaker, with a razor-thin majority and an opinionated caucus, is facing an uphill battle when it comes to healthcare. Like most of the contentious legislative issues this year, the speaker has had to balance concerns from blue-state, centrist, and swing-district members who were concerned about reelection as Republicans sought to advance their conservative agenda with the GOP trifecta. But he also faced pushback from his right flank, which has threatened to hold up floor proceedings and sink bills if it does not get what it wants.
This has put Johnson in between a rock and a hard place, often relying on input from President Donald Trump to help ease the conference out of infighting and onto a productive path forward.
Trump did not endorse an extension of the Obamacare subsidies in a Monday interview with Politico, instead saying that he wants to “give the money to the people, not to the insurance companies.”
THUNE TO CHALLENGE DEMOCRATS’ OBAMACARE VOTE WITH GOP COUNTERPROPOSAL
Meanwhile, more serious advances toward a healthcare solution are occurring in the Senate. Republicans have offered a counterproposal to Senate Democrats’ bill extending the Obamacare credits by three years, both of which are set to get a vote on Thursday.
The Senate GOP proposal focuses on the health savings accounts, an option proposed to House Republicans this morning. The plan does not extend the Obamacare subsidies and takes the extra money from the tax credits and puts it into the HSAs for those who purchase bronze-level or “catastrophic” plans on Obamacare.
Lauren Green contributed to this report.
