Key ACA tax credits likely to expire after House speaker blocks vote

by · CNBC

Key Points

  • Key tax credits that reduce the cost of Affordable Care Act health insurance coverage for millions of Americans looked likely to expire by the end of the year.
  • House Speaker Mike Johnson said his chamber will not vote on extending those Obamacare subsidies this week.

Key tax credits that reduce the cost of Affordable Care Act health insurance coverage for millions of Americans looked likely to expire by the end of the year after House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that there would be no vote on extending those subsidies this week.

The House is not in session next week, meaning that Johnson was not leaving the door open for a later vote before the boosted ACA premium assistance expires.

There remains a chance that enough Republicans in Johnson's majority caucus agree to back a Democrat-led effort to force an effective vote on extending the tax credits for Obamacare health plans.

The tactic, a discharge petition, is identical to one recently used to force a vote on a bill compelling the release by the Department of Justice of investigative files related to sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.

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"We looked for a way to try to allow that pressure release valve, and it just was not to be," Johnson, R-La., said at a press conference, referring to the looming expiration date for the aid.

"We worked on it all the way through the weekend, in fact, and in the end, an agreement wasn't made," he said.

Republican leadership in the House is continuing to push for a novel cost-sharing plan that would make it easier for small employers to provide their own health-care plans. A vote on that proposal remains set for Wednesday.

"It offers commonsense solutions to lower premium costs for everybody, all Americans," Johnson said. "It expands access to quality care, provides every American with more options and flexibility to choose coverage that works for them and it brings greater transparency to America's health-care system."

But Democrats and some moderate Republicans are continuing to push for votes on an extension of the enhanced Obamacare premium credits.

The health policy research group KFF has said that about 22 million Americans, or more than 90% of total enrollment in ACA insurance coverage, receive enhanced subsidies, which were made available during the Covid-19 pandemic to increase the pool of people who are eligible for reduced health coverage premiums.

KFF has estimated that when the boosted subsidies expire, people's premiums would more than double in 2026 on average.

The deadline for signing up for ACA plan coverage on Obamacare marketplaces for 2026 was this past Monday.

Moderate Republicans who want the credits extended are pushing a pair of bipartisan discharge petitions from Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., to force Johnson to hold a vote on their health-care bills to extend the credits with other reforms.

That effort now appears to be on life support after Johnson's statement Tuesday.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who has has yet to back either of the bipartisan options, is pushing his own discharge petition that has the signatures of all 214 House Democrats.

Only four Republicans need to break ranks and sign his petition to force a vote on his bill that would extend the credits. So far, Republicans have not done so, in the hopes that Jeffries will endorse one of the bipartisan proposals.

"I am pissed for the American people, this is absolute bulls---," said Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, a moderate Republican who is pushing for an extension of the credits, after he emerged from a GOP conference meeting Tuesday morning.

"If Hakeem Jeffries was serious about this, he would actually tell his conference, go sign the discharges and let's force a vote," Lawler said. "But he's not, and that's the problem."

Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., a supporter of the discharge petitions, said, "Leadership of both parties are failing to take reasonable steps to support the compromise measure."

Kiley said that Jeffries "is instead insisting the only way to go is this three-year clean extension" of the tax credits, with "no reforms, which has already failed the Senate and so wouldn't become law if it passed the House anyway."

Fitzpatrick's proposal would extend the credits through 2027.

His petition has 24 signatures, well short of the 218 signatures needed to force a vote.

Fitzpatrick said on Tuesday that he expects Jeffries' discharge petition will obtain 218 signatures.

— CNBC's Emily Wilkins contributed to this report.