{"id":16148,"date":"2025-12-02T02:17:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T02:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/senate-barrels-toward-failure-on-health-care\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T02:17:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T02:17:00","slug":"senate-barrels-toward-failure-on-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/senate-barrels-toward-failure-on-health-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate barrels toward failure on health care"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Senators have about a week before they’re set to vote on soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act subsidies. Most of them already believe the chances for a bipartisan breakthrough by then are roughly zero.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no clear momentum for any plan that would avoid a lapse in tax credits that could raise insurance premiums for 20 million Americans. House and Senate members involved in the talks said Monday they are still trading ideas, and Congress is in the dark<\/u><\/a> about whether President Donald Trump will roll out an 11th-hour framework for an extension, which could help provide a needed boost.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, it\u2019s not on a fast track,\u201d Sen. Markwayne Mullin<\/a> (R-Okla.) said about the chances for a health care deal.<\/p>\n

Instead, the most likely outcome is that Senate Democrats put up a bill that has little GOP support for a vote, if any, while Republicans offer a competing bill of their own. And even those partisan proposals remained in flux as lawmakers returned to Washington from a weeklong recess.<\/p>\n

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen<\/a> (D-N.H.), who has been a key figure in the bipartisan negotiations over a potential extension, said that while she still believes there is time to craft a compromise proposal before the vote, it \u201cremains to be seen\u201d if people are willing to move that quickly.<\/p>\n

On a separate track, GOP Sens. Mike Crapo<\/a> of Idaho and Bill Cassidy<\/a> of Louisiana are working behind the scenes on a bill meant to serve as the Republican counterproposal to whatever Democrats offer, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations. Aside from the unsettled substance of the bill, when it might be unveiled remains in question.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune<\/a> and two other people familiar with internal conference discussions didn\u2019t rule out a vote on a GOP health care plan next week but would not commit to that timing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see what the Dems want to put up,\u201d Thune said Monday. \u201cThere\u2019s obviously something that we could put up as a side-by-side, neither of which would probably get 60 [votes to advance], but I think in the end you would like to see if there\u2019s a path forward on something that could merge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Senate Republicans don\u2019t see the point in forcing a symbolic vote on a GOP counterproposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to take a vote just for the heck of it,\u201d said Mullin, who spoke with Trump about health care last week. \u201dIf we\u2019re going to vote, let\u2019s make sure we do something that\u2019s going to be productive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Health care is expected to be the dominant topic at both Senate party lunches Tuesday. Democrats will use the closed-door meeting to talk through their options, which include offering a \u201cclean\u201d extension of the ACA subsidies \u2014 which few Republicans support \u2014 or an extension paired with GOP-favored eligibility restrictions as an olive branch to conservatives.<\/p>\n

Senate Republicans are facing their own dilemma \u2014 and internal divisions \u2014 over which approach to take. Some, like Sens. Susan Collins<\/a> of Maine and Lisa Murkowski<\/a> of Alaska have backed an extension of the subsidies, but a chunk of the Senate GOP conference, to say nothing of their counterparts in the House, want to end the subsidies cold turkey.<\/p>\n

Many Republicans, including Cassidy, are focused on alternatives that would structure federal health care subsidies around health savings accounts, an idea that Trump has also endorsed. But lawmakers agree there is virtually no time to develop and implement such a system before the existing subsidies expire, leading some Republicans to favor a temporary extension.<\/p>\n

Murkowski said she is \u201cvery hopeful\u201d about the bipartisan talks underway but acknowledged the time pressure: \u201cThe calendar is not necessarily our friend right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nor, for now, is Trump, who appears to be sitting on the sidelines even as some congressional Republicans are begging him to get involved and sketch out a health care plan that could help unite and energize GOP factions in the House and Senate.<\/p>\n

The president appeared poised to roll out a plan<\/a> late last month that would extend the ACA subsidies with an income cap and other eligibility restrictions. But the White House scuttled that plan amid a mountain of GOP backlash<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think without White House leadership, we’re not going to have a well received product,\u201d said Sen. Thom Tillis<\/a> (R-N.C.), who has backed a temporary extension. \u201cIf we produce something in the Senate, it won’t be well received in the house unless the president works his magic, which he’s very capable of doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thune said Monday he doesn\u2019t believe the White House is \u201cadvocating for advancing anything at the moment,\u201d while making the point that health care talks could continue past next week\u2019s votes. Lawmakers increasingly view Jan. 30 \u2014 the next government funding deadline \u2013 as the real cutoff for a health care deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s, you know, groundwork being laid that could end up in actually something getting done,\u201d he said. \u201cI just don\u2019t know if it can get done by next week. That\u2019d be a pretty heavy lift.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, House Republicans are on a separate track altogether, with party leaders looking to assemble a suite of health care bills from three committees \u2014 Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Education and Workforce. Their plan is less about making law, which would require buy-in from Senate Democrats, and more about showing voters that Republicans have plans to address rising health care costs.<\/p>\n

Under pressure from unhappy GOP centrists, House leaders are tentatively planning to put legislation on the floor before the chamber\u2019s scheduled Dec. 18 departure for the holiday recess. But that could change. The Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce panels are holding listening sessions with Republican members this week, indicating their plans remain in development.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to get it done as soon as we are ready to get it passed,\u201d Majority Leader Steve Scalise<\/a> said in a brief interview Monday.<\/p>\n

Some GOP chairs raised questions and made messaging suggestions on health care during a leadership meeting Monday with Scalise, according to four people granted anonymity to describe the private conversation. One of the people added that there\u2019s still \u201cnot a lot of direction\u201d from Republican leaders on the topic, and even conservative Republicans are rankled that no firm proposals are being circulated widely inside the conference with just 11 scheduled session days remaining in the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re nowhere on health care,\u201d said one senior House Republican who was granted anonymity to candidly describe the situation.<\/p>\n

Republican leaders are also under pressure from some House GOP centrists who are threatening to use a discharge petition to effectively force a subsidy extension bill to the floor.<\/p>\n

One of those centrists, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick<\/a> of Pennsylvania, said Monday he has spoken with the White House about a bill he is working on and shopping around to colleagues, which would largely mirror Trump\u2019s unreleased framework<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s one of those things where nobody’s going to love it,\u201d Fitzpatrick said. \u201cBut hopefully enough people are okay with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benjamin Guggenheim and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senators have about a week before they’re set to vote on soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act subsidies. Most of them already believe the chances for a bipartisan breakthrough by then are roughly zero. There\u2019s no clear momentum for any plan that would avoid a lapse in tax credits that could raise insurance premiums for 20 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}