The Republican-controlled Senate voted Thursday to reject health care bills offered by each party, as the U.S. barrels toward a cliff with steep premium hikes for millions of Americans set to hit next month. The failed votes raise the likelihood that enhanced Obamacare subsidies passed in 2021 will expire at the end of this year and cause premiums to double on average for some 22 million Americans who benefit from that funding. Neither bill achieved the 60 votes needed to advance and Democrats hope to use the issue to mobilize voters in the 2026 midterm elections if there is no outcome to prevent the cost increases.
Across the Capitol, House Republicans on Friday unveiled a health care bill they will bring to a vote this week that includes items that are broadly popular in the party, like cost sharing reductions and reforms to the pharmacy benefit manager industry, but will exclude an extension of expiring enhanced ObamaCare subsidies. House GOP leaders will allow an amendment vote on extending expiring Obamacare subsidies in a concession to moderates who had been calling to go on the record on the matter. The exact contours of the amendment are not yet settled. Provisions in the bill, dubbed the “Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act,” include policies that have already cleared key committees. The bill will appropriate funds to pay for “cost-sharing reductions” in ObamaCare, a complicated move that will lower premiums for some people but decrease the overall amount of subsidies and make premiums more expensive for others. Such a provision was stripped from the “One Big Beautiful Bill” over the summer because it violated Senate rules.
For today, the Senate will reconvene at 3:00 PM. and at 5:30 P.M. will take up a Motion to invoke cloture on the motion to concur in the House amendment to S.1071, NDAA.
The House will meet at 12:00 P.M. for morning hour and 2:00 P.M. for legislative business. At 6:30 P.M. the House will take up twenty bills Under Suspension of the Rules, including S. 284 – Congressional Award Program Reauthorization Act.
