{"id":16573,"date":"2025-12-11T18:16:59","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T18:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/senate-rejects-dueling-health-care-bills-as-obamacare-deadline-looms\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T18:16:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T18:16:59","slug":"senate-rejects-dueling-health-care-bills-as-obamacare-deadline-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/senate-rejects-dueling-health-care-bills-as-obamacare-deadline-looms\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate rejects dueling health care bills as Obamacare deadline looms"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Senate rejected dueling health care bills Thursday, all but guaranteeing that Obamacare subsidies used by more than 20 million Americans will lapse at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Senators voted 51-48 on advancing a GOP health care plan<\/a> that would have expanded health savings accounts as an alternative to the expiring tax credits. Democrats\u2019 plan<\/a> to extend the Covid-era enhanced subsidies for three years also received a 51-48 vote. Both proposals fell well short of the 60 votes needed to vault a key procedural hurdle.<\/p>\n

The votes both went largely, but not entirely, along party lines. Sen. Rand Paul<\/a> of Kentucky was the only Republican to oppose the GOP plan<\/a>. Meanwhile, Republican Sens. Susan Collins<\/a> of Maine, Josh Hawley<\/a> of Missouri, Lisa Murkowski<\/a> of Alaska and Dan Sullivan<\/a> of Alaska voted to advance the Democrats\u2019 health care plan.<\/p>\n

Paul said his party\u2019s bill, written by Sens. Bill Cassidy<\/a> of Louisiana and Mike Crapo<\/a> of Idaho, amounted to \u201cObamacare lite,\u201d while Collins, Hawley and Murkowski have expressed sharp concerns about allowing the subsidies to expire.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s Senate votes were part of a deal Senate Majority Leader John Thune<\/a> made with Democrats to end the government shutdown that ended last month. Senators have widely acknowledged for weeks that the votes were aimed more at messaging than forcing through passable bipartisan compromise.<\/p>\n

Still, a deal in the Senate was likely Congress\u2019 best shot at preventing the subsidies from lapsing and raising premiums for many Americans who buy their insurance directly through Affordable Care Act exchanges. While the lapse will not completely eliminate the tax credits, they will revert back to pre-pandemic levels and many families could still see their premiums rise<\/a> by $1,000 a year or more.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur bill is the last train leaving the station,\u201d Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer<\/a> said ahead of the vote, urging Republicans to support the Democratic bill.<\/p>\n

The House is similarly riven by partisan divides. Republican leaders have no plans at the moment to put a subsidy extension up for a vote before adjourning for the year next week. Democratic leaders in the chamber, like Senate Democrats, want to extend the expiring tax credits by three years; two bipartisan bills proposing shorter extensions are subject to discharge petitions<\/a> that could force action \u2014 but not until next year.<\/p>\n

Thune said if a bill is able to pass the House, \u201cobviously we\u2019ll take a look at it.\u201d But he shared a note of skepticism, saying, \u201cWe\u2019ll cross that bridge when we come to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rank-and-file senators are leaving the door open to trying to strike a last-minute bipartisan deal, but they are effectively out of time. The Senate is expected to adjourn next week until January, and, while bipartisan talks are ongoing, they\u2019ve failed to gain momentum. Multiple sticky political fights, including a clash over abortion restrictions, would need to be resolved in a passable deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that after today they will feel like they\u2019ve checked the messaging box and will get serious about actually doing something about the spiraling health care costs under Obamacare,\u201d Thune said ahead of the vote. \u201cRepublicans are ready to get to work. I\u2019m not sure yet if the Democrats are interested.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen<\/a> (D-N.H.) said she was open to negotiating long-term health care reforms but added that with time running short, extending the credits is the \u201ceasiest\u201d immediate solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to act now,\u201d Shaheen said. \u201cI know there are members in both parties who want to find a responsible path forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calen Razor contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Senate rejected dueling health care bills Thursday, all but guaranteeing that Obamacare subsidies used by more than 20 million Americans will lapse at the end of the year. Senators voted 51-48 on advancing a GOP health care plan that would have expanded health savings accounts as an alternative to the expiring tax credits. Democrats\u2019 […]<\/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-16573","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\/16573","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=16573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}