Senate Democrats unveil exchange subsidies extension bill

Modern Healthcare – Thursday, December 4, 2025
By Michael McAuliff

Enhanced subsidies for health insurance exchange plans would be extended for three years under a plan Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Thursday.

The enhanced premium tax credits for marketplace policies expire at the end of the year, leading to significant cost increases for exchange enrollees in 2026. The Senate Democrats who sided with the Republican majority to end the government shutdown last month secured a promise from Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to hold a vote on the issue, which is slated for next week.

Schumer described the Senate measure, which mirrors a House Democratic plan, as a “clean” extension that wouldn’t make other changes to Affordable Care Act of 2010 programs.

The Senate Democratic leader also characterized the proposal as the GOP’s last chance to protect exchange customers from huge rate hikes. The open enrollment period began Nov. 1 and ends Jan. 15 in most states.

“Republicans have one week to decide where they stand,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “Vote for this bill and bring healthcare costs down, or block this bill and send premiums skyrocketing.”

The congressional Republican majority has not produced its own plan to address the subsidy cliff. Most, but not all, GOP lawmakers remain opposed to the ACA and to renewing the beefed up tax credits, which President Joe Biden and the Democratic majority originally created as a COVID-19 relief measure in 2021.

The Democratic subsidies bill would need to attract 60 votes to prevent a Republican filibuster, so Democrats and their independent allies require at least 13 GOP supporters to advance the legislation.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has not pledged to allow a vote in the lower chamber and President Donald Trump has wavered about whether to let the enhanced subsidies lapse.

Senate Majority Whip Dr. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) dismissed the Democratic plan on Thursday.

“Obamacare is broken,” Barrasso said, echoing the sentiments of many conservative Republicans who want to see the enhanced subsidies expire. “Obamacare is a failure. Obamacare is unaffordable.”

Some Democrats have held talks with centrist Republicans to seek a compromise that would temporarily extend the enhanced subsidies while adding policies such as income caps on eligibility, minimum monthly premiums and anti-fraud measures.

Schumer shrugged off those efforts at a news conference Thursday, noting they have not resulted in Republican pledges to vote in favor of renewing the enhanced subsidies. He also emphasized that Republicans seek to ban abortion coverage in exchange plans, which is a nonstarter for Democrats.

Reps. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) led a bipartisan group of 35 House members who released an alternative plan on Thursday. This proposal would extend enhanced subsidies for two years, lengthen the 2026 open enrollment period until March 19, phase in income caps and institute anti-fraud policies. The plan also includes new regulations on pharmacy benefit managers.

Schumer scoffed at the notion that a fruitful compromise is possible given resistance from GOP leaders and said a straightforward extension of the enhanced subsidies is the only way forward.

“Putting something together that two Republicans might support when Johnson says he’s not going to do anything, when half his caucus doesn’t even want to [keep] the ACA tax credits? Come on,” Schumer said during the news conference. “The fault is theirs, not with us, and they can just vote for this — plain and simple. That’s it.”

Access this article at its original source.