WASHINGTON — The US House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday extending Obamacare subsidies for three years, upping the pressure on Senate Republicans to reconsider the legislation just months after Democrats forced a government shutdown over the issue.
The House voted 230-196 to approve tens of billions of dollars in Affordable Care Act tax credits, with more than a dozen Republicans crossing party lines to join every Democrat.
The credits expired on Dec. 31, 2025, after having been previously enhanced through legislation passed under former President Joe Biden and a Democratic-controlled Congress during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roughly 22 million Americans are expected to have higher health care premiums this year as a result.
At least nine House Republicans had crossed party lines to advance the bill Wednesday — and at least 17 GOP lawmakers voted for its final passage.
But the House measure is unlikely to be considered in the Senate, though a bipartisan group of lawmakers have been debating a deal on an alternative bill that would extend the Obamacare credits for just two years — with some other cost-reducing provisions.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) got the necessary 218 signatures for a discharge petition to force a vote in the lower chamber on the bill that passed on a bipartisan basis Thursday.
On Monday, Jeffries told reporters the bill would “prevent tens of millions of Americans from experiencing dramatically-increased premiums, co-pays and deductibles this month, increases that in some cases could result in everyday Americans paying $1,000 or $2,000 more per month.”
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) told The Post Thursday that, without the extension, his constituents have to fork over around 8% of their income to pay premiums.
“This is a huge victory for the American people,” Suozzi said, while noting that there are other compromise bills being floated by working groups of Democrats and Republicans, including in the House Problem Solvers Caucus that he co-chairs.
“My signature on the discharge for this bill, and my affirmative vote today, is not an endorsement of a clean 3-year extension, rather a commitment to a bipartisan solution,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) said.
“I look forward to working with and voting on a Senate-amended bipartisan compromise in weeks ahead,” he added. “My focus is always ensuring Hudson Valley families aren’t caught in the gridlock, and that doesn’t change today.”
The Jeffries-backed bill would hike the federal budget’s deficit over the next decade by more than $80.5 billion, according to a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, and have been criticized by the GOP as an imperfect fix for a “broken system.”
That’s been exacerbated by a widening fraud scandal currently engulfing Minnesota, where nonprofits and state-supported organizations, many with ties to the Twin Cities’ Somali community, have allegedly run off with as much as $9 billion in funding meant for low-income families’ child care and other social services.
Past federal watchdog reports have faulted some of those programs for not having robust anti-fraud safeguards to verify attendance, visit entities that received funding to ensure care was being provided and flag those improperly billing states for multiple services.
Senate Democrats prompted the longest federal shutdown in US history last October by refusing to vote for a stopgap spending measure that didn’t include the subsidies — with Republicans in the upper chamber demanding the Obamacare credits be taken up as a standalone bill.
During the 43-day shutdown, GOP senators twice tanked Dem-backed bills tucking in the three-year extension of the tax credits.
“I don’t think there’s an appetite to do a straight-up extension,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters Thursday. “We’ve had that vote, as you know, already. But we’ll see what happens from the working group, and if they can come up with something that has reforms, and we’ll go from there.”
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), who is leading that working group, hopes 35 Republicans could rally around a revised version of the ACA extension bill.
At present, those talks have reached rough consensus on a two-year extension of funding, pushing back the deadline for open enrollment until March and placing income caps on recipients at 700% of the federal poverty line.
There’s also been discussions about raising the price of $0 premium plans, putting the subsidies directly into Health Savings Accounts and imposing penalties on insurers that enroll people in Obamacare programs without their awareness.
But there’s been disagreements about that bill too, especially whether it will prevent taxpayer funding for abortions, a provision commonly known as the Hyde Amendment.
President Trump, who has supported extending the health care subsidies, suggested Republicans should be “flexible on Hyde” earlier this week, drawing blowback from conservatives such as House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris (R-Md.).
“The Senate will have to negotiate a bipartisan compromise,” Suozzi said, suggesting that its outline might look similar to provisions put forward by himself and the Problem Solvers.
As many as 30 House members of both parties met Thursday to discuss the the compromise bill with three Democratic and three Republican senators, he noted.
