Congress races against the clock to avert skyrocketing health care costs for millions

By Alison Main, CNN

(CNN) — Lawmakers are scrambling to address skyrocketing health care costs in the final days before Congress leaves Washington for the holidays, with enhanced tax credits that make insurance premiums more affordable for millions of Americans set to expire at the end of the month.

After the Senate failed to advance health care plans spearheaded by each party last week, it’s the House’s turn to take up proposals with similarly uncertain outcomes.

Speaker Mike Johnson has vowed to hold a vote on a Republican-led bill released last week, which includes provisions to lower premiums for certain Affordable Care Act enrollees through a cost-sharing reduction program. The plan would not extend the Covid-era subsidies due to lapse at the end of this month.

GOP leaders are also expected to allow an amendment to extend the ACA credits to come to the floor, as swing-state Republicans like Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania seek to force a vote on the issue.

The legislative path to passing a short-term extension of the expiring subsidies before both chambers depart on Friday until early January seems all but impossible.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has thrown cold water on the narrow GOP health care plan and has kept his powder dry on whether more Democrats may back efforts to strong-arm votes on bipartisan bills to extend the Obamacare tax credits into the new year with some changes.

Even if health care legislation were to pass the House, it would face a Senate that failed to garner 60 votes to advance bills, including a three-year ACA subsidy extension last week, and a president who has made clear he favors funneling federal aid directly to patients through health savings accounts, also known as HSAs.

Still, Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chairs a key health committee, expressed cautious optimism on Sunday that Congress can find some way to shield Americans from exorbitant health care costs.

The Louisiana Republican told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday he thinks there’s still hope to reach a bipartisan compromise to put money directly in the pockets of Americans who can’t afford their health care and also briefly extend enhanced Obamacare credits for those who depend on them the most.

“Republicans have pushed that we would put money in the patients’ pocket so that she has something to pay the out-of-pocket. Democrats are saying let’s do something about premiums,” Cassidy said. “I think, Dana, there is a deal that could be made. Why don’t we do both?”

Cassidy’s own plan, which included a measure for direct payments to HSAs, but not an extension of the ACA subsidies, failed to pass the Senate last week.

Asked on CBS’ “Face the Nation” why the White House didn’t do more to back his proposal last week, Cassidy said, “Our problem is not with Republicans. Our problem has been with Democrats. But of course, they may say that about us. So what I am kind of searching for is a deal in which both have their concerns addressed.”

Moments after all but four Senate Republicans voted against advancing a bill to extend ACA subsidies for three years last week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters the “onus” is on GOP leaders to come to the table if they really want a compromise.

“Look, the Republicans voted against this 13 times,” Schumer said, referencing the several failed votes the Senate took during the government shutdown that would have extended ACA tax credits.

In another sign of the potentially rocky path ahead, Senate Majority Leader John Thune accused Democrats that same day of propping up a “blanket” ACA subsidy extension he said wasn’t “sustainable,” because “these guys are more interested in having a political issue than they are in having a solution.”

Thune was noncommittal about bringing a bill to the floor sponsored by two Republican senators that would extend the ACA subsidies, with some changes, for two years.

Sen. Jon Ossoff, the most vulnerable Senate Democrat in next year’s midterm elections, warned a failure to address the expiring tax credits would be a “political disaster” for Republicans.

“The politics are clear, but that’s not the most important part of this. We really are talking about life and death,” Ossoff told CNN’s Manu Raju on “Inside Politics Sunday,” adding that half a million people in his home state of Georgia are projected to lose their access to health insurance altogether.

“Maybe that gets lost sometimes in the drama inside the beltway,” he said. “The vote that members cast, whether to extend these tax credits means people will live or people will die.”

CNN’s Sarah Ferris, Adam Cancryn and Manu Raju contributed to this report.

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