Dec. 11 (UPI) — The Senate failed to approve either of two competing healthcare plans meant to address healthcare costs likely to rise in the new year with the expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits.
Democrats and Republicans each put forth their own healthcare plans, but neither mustered the 60 votes needed to overcome the Senate’s filibuster rule with identical 51-48 vote totals, NBC News and The Hill reported.
Each proposal mostly received party-line support, with only Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. voting against the GOP proposal, which all Senate Democrats also opposed.
Senate Democrats received some GOP support for their proposal, with Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, voting in favor.
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., did not cast a vote for or against either measure.
The Democrats’ plan included a three-year extension of enhanced ACA subsidies beyond the Jan. 1 expiration date. The proposal would also limit health insurance premiums under the ACA to 8.5% of the policyholders’ incomes.
The enhanced subsidies were put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the 2021 American Rescue Plan.
To pass, Democrats needed at least 13 Republicans to vote in favor of the plan.
The expiring subsidies were the crux of a six-week government shutdown this fall. Democrats refused to vote in favor of a House Republican-drafted stopgap funding measure without including language that would see the subsidies extended beyond December.
Without the subsidies, healthcare premiums through the ACA were forecast to more than double in some cases. The Congressional Budget Office projects about 3.8 million will drop coverage annually over the next eight years without the additional subsidies. In 2025, a record 24 million Americans got their health insurance through the healthcare marketplace.
“We have 21 days until Jan.1,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “After that, people’s healthcare bills will start going through the roof. Double, triple, even more.
“There is only one way to avoid all of this. The only realistic path left is what Democrats are proposing — a clean, direct extension of this urgent tax credit.”
Republicans, however, refused to consider the subsidies as part of the continuing resolution. Ultimately, Republicans agreed to consider a separate healthcare vote as a tradeoff to reopening the government.
The Republican plan, unveiled Tuesday by Sens. Bill Cassidy and Mike Crapo, doesn’t extend the subsidies but provides $1,500 health savings accounts for those earning less than 700% of the poverty level.”
“It delivers the benefit directly to the patient, not to the insurance company, and it does it in a way that actually saves money to the taxpayer,” Senate Republican leader John Thune said.
He described the Democrats’ plan as a “partisan messaging exercise” and called the idea that it would lower healthcare costs a “tour of fantasy land,” according to ABC News.
