{"id":176770,"date":"2025-09-23T17:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T17:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/176770\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T17:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T17:09:07","slug":"why-obamacare-funding-is-a-sticking-point-in-the-fight-to-avoid-a-government-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/176770\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Obamacare funding is a sticking point in the fight to avoid a government shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 A pot of funding for insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act<\/a> expires at the end of this year, and Republicans in Congress are rejecting Democrats\u2019 demands<\/a> to extend it this month in a government funding bill.<\/p>\n

Expiration of the funds would lead to sharp premium hikes for people all over the country. While they officially expire after the last day of 2025, there is some urgency to act soon: Insurers are filing their rates over the next few weeks, and open enrollment begins Nov. 1. Failure to act by then could cause many people to drop their coverage for 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnically, the enhanced ACA tax credits don\u2019t expire until December 31. But, the longer Congress waits to extend them, the more damage and chaos there will be in the meantime,\u201d Larry Levitt, a health care policy expert at KFF, a nonpartisan research group, said in an email. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf open enrollment starts November 1 without the tax credits extended, ACA enrollees are going to log in to their accounts and see average out-of-pocket premium increases averaging over 75%. Their eyes are going to pop out of their heads, and many will likely decide not to enroll,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

Republican leaders say Congress can debate the Obamacare funding in November or December, although they haven\u2019t committed to allow votes to extend the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we are open to the conversation about what we do with the Obamacare premium tax credits,\u201d Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters last week. \u201cThat\u2019s something in which members, Republican senators and I think, for that matter, Republican House members have an interest, as well, but this isn\u2019t the place to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats approved the money during the Biden administration to cap premiums at 8.5% of income and ease the burden for some middle-income earners. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates an annual cost of $35 billion<\/a> to extend the money that is set to expire. (Other Obamacare funds will continue.)<\/p>\n

Approving the funds in November or December could alleviate the pain for many enrollees, but it would be messier than acting this month. Some states require insurers to file two sets of rates, one in the event the subsidies are extended and one in the event that they expire. Congress could extend the open enrollment period or permit insurers to revise rates later on. Those options would cause some enrollees to fall through the cracks.<\/p>\n

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the only GOP senator who voted against her party\u2019s short-term government funding extension<\/a> Friday, proposed an alternative framework<\/a> that includes \u201cextending the ACA\u2019s enhanced premium tax credits to stabilize costs for those on the exchanges\u201d in a bill to prevent a shutdown.<\/p>\n

That move caught the attention of some Democrats.<\/p>\n

\u201cLisa Murkowski tweeted out a proposal that acknowledged what I think other Republican senators are saying, both publicly and privately, which is that the loss of the ACA subsidies are a very urgent issue,\u201d Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, a member of his party\u2019s leadership team, said Monday on a call with reporters. \u201cPeople are already getting their letters \u2014 increases of up to $400 or $500 per person per month. And so they feel a sense of urgency on this, and I think conversations are ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can kind of tell when something is a nonstarter,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd this is not a nonstarter for many Republicans. They understand this has to get fixed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats see the funding bill as a rare opportunity to force the issue, as it requires votes from 60 senators \u2014 meaning at least seven Democrats \u2014\u00a0to pass. While they have also proposed to repeal President Donald Trump’s Medicaid cuts and unfreeze money he has withheld, the Obamacare funds carry a unique political dynamic: Trump’s own pollster has warned<\/a> that Republicans would pay a price with voters if premiums go up.<\/p>\n

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., who has publicly pushed for extending the ACA funds, said he\u2019d \u201cprefer\u201d to act on it sooner rather than later. But he downplayed the damage of waiting until the end of the year and noted that many states allow two sets of premiums for that scenario.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I\u2019m understanding, they\u2019ll work this thing through. But the agents I\u2019m talking to tell me most of the companies are doing two sets, and the states are allowing them to do it. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s everybody or not,\u201d Rounds said. \u201cIt\u2019ll depend on how we come across on this. I think there\u2019s a good possibility we\u2019re going to get something done. But time will tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Insurers also warn there will be consequences if Congress waits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the tax credits are set to expire at the end of 2025, Congress should take action to extend them as soon as possible to provide peace of mind and minimize confusion for consumers when they receive information about their 2026 premiums in October,\u201d said Chris Bond, a spokesman for America\u2019s Health Insurance Plans, the industry\u2019s lobbying group.<\/p>\n

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the chief of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees Obamacare, sided with Republicans on keeping the money out of a continuing resolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of discussion right now around how to make the ACA work best for the American people,\u201d Oz said last week. \u201cI think the [continuing resolution] should be clean … and allow that process to continue. But rest assured, there\u2019s a lot of discussion on this topic daily. It\u2019s the topic that I personally think about the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed by NBC News about whether it would be helpful to CMS to extend the health care funds by Nov. 1, when open enrollment begins, Oz replied, \u201cWe can manage it either way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 A pot of funding for insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act expires at the end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-176770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}