Senate Republicans appear to be closing in on a plan to counter Senate Democrats’ proposal to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies as a vote on credits at the end of the week draws closer.
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, unveiled their proposal to tackle the Obamacare issue that would abandon the subsidies for Healthcare Savings Accounts (HSAs).
The lawmakers have been leading Senate Republicans’ planning for a counter-proposal to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Democrats’ legislation, which would extend the Biden-era subsidies for three years.
Cassidy and Crapo pitched the legislation as ‘an alternative to Democrats’ temporary COVID bonuses, which send billions of tax dollars to giant insurance companies without lowering insurance premiums.’
The long-awaited proposal would funnel the subsidy money directly to HSAs rather than to insurance companies, an idea that has the backing of President Donald Trump and is largely popular among Senate Republicans.
‘Instead of 100% of this money going to insurance companies, let’s give it to patients. By giving them an account that they control, we give them the power,’ Cassidy said in a statement. ‘We make health care affordable again.’
Crapo contended that the legislation would build off of Trump’s marquee legislative package, the ‘big beautiful bill,’ from earlier this year and would ‘help Americans manage the rising cost of health care without driving costs even higher.’
‘Giving billions of taxpayer dollars to insurers is not working to reduce health insurance premiums for patients,’ he said in a statement.
Whether the bill gets a vote in the upper chamber this week remains in the air, given the growing number of Obamacare subsidy plans floated by Senate Republicans. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., signaled that he thought their plan could work.
‘It represents an approach that actually does something on affordability and lowers costs,’ Thune said.
‘But there are other ideas out there, as you know, but I think if there is going to be some meeting of minds on this, it is going to require that Democrats sort of come off a position they know is an untenable one, and sit down in a serious way,’ he continued.
Cassidy and Crapo’s plan would seed HSAs with $1,000 for people ages 18 to 49 and $1,500 for those 50 to 65 for people earning up to 700% of the poverty level. In order to get the pre-funded HSA, people would have to buy a bronze or catastrophic plan on an Obamacare exchange.
The legislation also ticks off several demands from Senate Republicans in their back and forth with Senate Democrats over the subsidies that are unlikely to gain any favor from Schumer and his caucus.
Shortly after the legislation was unveiled, Schumer charged in a post on X that ‘Republicans are nowhere on healthcare, and the clock is ticking.’
Included in Cassidy and Crapo’s bill are provisions reducing federal Medicaid funding to states that cover undocumented immigrants, Requirements that states verify citizenship or eligible immigration status before someone can get Medicaid, a ban on federal Medicaid funding for gender transition services and nixing those services from ‘essential health benefits’ for ACA exchange plans, and inclusion Hyde Amendment provisions to prevent taxpayer dollars from funding abortions through the new HSAs.
Senate Republicans are expected to discuss the several options on the table, including newly-released plans from Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., respectively, during their closed-door conference meeting Tuesday afternoon.
When asked if there could be a compromise solution found among the proposals, Cassidy said, ‘That’s going to be the will of the conference, if you will.’