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House Passes Obamacare Subsidies, Defying GOP Leaders and Putting Pressure on Senate

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The US House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday extending Obamacare subsidies for three years, upping the pressure on Senate Republicans to reconsider the legislation just months after Democrats forced a government shutdown over the issue.

The House voted 230-196 to approve tens of billions of dollars in Affordable Care Act tax credits, with more than a dozen Republicans crossing party lines to join every Democrat.

The credits expired on Dec. 31, 2025, after having been previously enhanced through legislation passed under former President Joe Biden and a Democratic-controlled Congress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roughly 22 million Americans are expected to have higher health care premiums this year as a result.

At least nine House Republicans had crossed party lines to advance the bill Wednesday — and at least 17 GOP lawmakers voted for its final passage. (Read more from “House Passes Obamacare Subsidies, Defying GOP Leaders and Putting Pressure on Senate” HERE)

House Passes Last Minute GOP Healthcare Bill

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Republicans in the House of Representatives passed a healthcare reform bill on Wednesday evening targeting rising costs as expiring Obamacare tax credits rally support for change ahead of midterm elections.

The new GOP-backed legislation, titled the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act, does not extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits expiring on Dec. 31. The bill, introduced by Republican Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, passed the House in a near party-line 216-211 vote.

Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie was the only GOP member to vote no. No Democrats supported the bill.

Miller-Meeks said on the House floor Wednesday that the new legislation lowers health care costs by “forcing transparency” and implementing “common sense solutions.”

“By lowering premiums through choice and competition, by expanding association health plans, we give small businesses and self-employed workers the buying power of large employers, cutting premiums by as much as 30%,” Miller-Meeks said. “Being transparent to drug pricing, we take on the pharmacy benefit managers who have long operated behind the scenes as middlemen, collecting hidden fees while prescription prices climb.” (Read more from “House Passes Last Minute GOP Healthcare Bill” HERE)

Republicans ‘Bringing a Number’ of Healthcare Bills to House Floor in ‘the Next Few Weeks’

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House Majority Leader Steve Scalise explained on Friday that House Republicans are introducing a series of healthcare bills that would alleviate the high costs that have arisen thanks to Obamacare.

Scalise joined the Ruthless podcast to discuss how House Republicans are working to lower prices. As a part of these efforts, he said Republicans will bring forth many bills that seek to lower healthcare costs, although it remains unclear if it will be one large healthcare reform package or a series of bills.

He said:

We’re bringing a number of bills to the floor in the next few weeks… I was meeting with the Doctors Caucus. I met with every different group, along with the three chairmen of the committees of Jurisdiction. Energy and Commerce has been working on a lot of really big things. Ways and Means Committee, the Education and Workforce Committee. They’ve all been working on different pieces to do things like association health plans… There’s no competition in health insurance. Really no transparency either. Imagine bringing those elements in.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday shared a text that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) had sent him, urging the president to back legislation that would make it easier to establish Association Health Plans (AHPs), which allow individuals to buy health insurance via a membership such as Amazon, Sam’s Club, or Costco. (Read more from “Republicans ‘Bringing a Number’ of Healthcare Bills to House Floor in ‘the Next Few Weeks’” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Report: White House to Unveil Healthcare Framework to Lower Costs

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The Trump White House is expected to unveil a healthcare policy framework that would lower costs and extend expiring Obamacare subsidies, according to reports.

MS NOW and Politico reported that the healthcare policy framework would include a two-year extension of the expiring enhanced premium tax credits (EPTC), or enhanced Obamacare subsidies, which would otherwise expire at the end of the year. The proposal could be unveiled as early as Monday.

A White House declined to confirm the details of the alleged plan to Politico, stating, “Until President Trump makes an announcement himself, any reporting about the administration’s healthcare positions is mere speculation.”

The plan would lower limits on income eligibility for the credits and set minimum premium payments, according to the reports. The proposed eligibility cap would set the subsidies to 700 percent of the federal poverty line; Republicans have complained that, with the current Obamacare enhanced subsidy scheme, wealthy Americans would benefit from the subsidies in what was meant to be a temporary, coronavirus-era benefit.

The White House plan would also urge Congress to fund cost-sharing reduction (CSR) plans, which Republicans pushed for in the Big Beautiful Bill, but were nixed after Senate Democrats objected to its inclusion in Trump’s landmark legislation, believing it violated rules on budgetary reconciliation. (Read more from “Report: White House to Unveil Healthcare Framework to Lower Costs” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Dems’ DMV-Style Healthcare Is a Threat to Americans With Pre-Existing Conditions

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. . .Joe Biden and Kamala Harris both support healthcare for illegal aliens. Harris co-sponsored Bernie Sanders’ $32 trillion socialized medicine plan to turn hospitals into DMVs and put bureaucrats in charge of Americans’ health decisions.

The “public option” is no better. Just like Joe Biden himself, it’s a Trojan Horse to usher in the left’s radical agenda. In this case, a single-payer system that would kill private care – which over 180 million Americans depend on.

Obamacare was a disaster. Premiums doubled and healthcare costs increased by $3,000 per year. What good was Obamacare if its “sky-high deductibles” made it “all but useless”? But Biden’s next health plan is even worse. Just ask his advisor Ezekiel Emmanuel. . .

President Trump is bringing meaningful reform to healthcare that led to the first drop in prescription drug costs in 45 years. His America First Healthcare Plan includes an executive order to protect those with pre-existing conditions, and will continue to give patients more choice and access. (Read more from “Dems’ DMV-Style Healthcare Is a Threat to Americans With Pre-Existing Conditions” HERE)

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Democrats Press Supreme Court for Quick Decision to Save Obamacare

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A coalition of blue states and congressional Democrats asked the Supreme Court Friday to salvage the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual mandate, after a federal appeals court declared it unconstitutional.

The petitions also urged the justices to hear the appeal on an expedited basis and ensure the dispute is resolved by the end of the high court’s term in June. The request is unusual, and the justices may prefer a slower pace.

“The lower courts have struck down a federal statutory provision on constitutional grounds and cast doubt on the validity of the entire ACA, arguably the most consequential package of legislative reforms of this century,” the blue state petition reads. “That uncertainty threatens adverse consequences for patients, providers, and insurers nationwide.”

“Under these circumstances, this Court should grant immediate review and resolve the case this Term,” it adds.

Congressional Democrats filed their petition separately. Both the House and the blue states proposed a case schedule culminating with oral arguments in late April. The states also broached the possibility of a special sitting in May to hear the dispute. A decision would follow in June. (Read more from “Democrats Press Supreme Court for Quick Decision to Save Obamacare” HERE)

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New Trump Rule Makes It Harder for Obamacare to Fund Abortion

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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today released a final rule making it more difficult for Obamacare plans to fund abortion by requiring certain insurers to issue separate bills for the portion of customers’ premiums that cover abortion.

“Being good stewards of taxpayer dollars and faithfully implementing the law are among the most important duties HHS has, and that’s what we’re doing with this rule,” said Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar. “The rule is part of much broader efforts at CMS, under Administrator Verma, to improve program integrity and reduce improper payments.”

“When [a healthcare] exchange plan covers abortions for which public funding is prohibited by federal law, this rule requires that customers receive separate bills for that abortion coverage and for the rest of their insurance,” he explained. “Providing these separate bills is an essential step in implementing the Affordable Care Act’s bar on tax credits going toward coverage of abortions for which public funding is prohibited.” . . .

CMS explained in a statement: “Pursuant to the law, this rule will ensure that taxpayers do not contribute funds to pay for coverage of abortion services for which funding isn’t allowed by law, and will alert consumers that their health plan covers abortion services, allowing them to make fully informed decisions about their coverage.” (Read more from “New Trump Rule Makes It Harder for Obamacare to Fund Abortion” HERE)

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Federal Appeals Court Rules Obamacare Individual Mandate Is Unconstitutional

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A panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which is based in New Orleans, ruled on Wednesday that Obamacare’s individual mandate, which required everyone to have health insurance, was unconstitutional in its present form.

“However, the appeals court ruling largely ducked the central question of whether the Affordable Care Act remained valid after Congress removed the penalty for not having health insurance and it sent the case back to a Texas federal judge who previously ruled the entire law was unconstitutional to reconsider how much of it could survive,” Politico reported. “The high-stakes ruling keeps the legal threat to Obamacare alive while reducing the likelihood the Supreme Court could render a final verdict on the law before the 2020 elections.”

The 5th panel wrote, “The individual mandate is unconstitutional because it can no longer be read as a tax, and there is no other constitutional provision that justifies this exercise of congressional power. On the severability question, we remand to the district court to provide additional analysis of the provisions of the ACA as they currently exist.”

“Having concluded that the individual mandate is unconstitutional, we must next determine whether, or how much of, the rest of the ACA is severable from that constitutional defect,” the ruling said.

“It may still be that none of the ACA is severable from the individual mandate, even after this inquiry is concluded,” the panel added. “It may be that all of the ACA is severable from the individual mandate. It may also be that some of the ACA is severable from the individual mandate, and some is not.”

(Read more from “Federal Appeals Court Rules Obamacare Individual Mandate Is Unconstitutional” HERE)

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Federal Judge Sides With Trump on Rule Allowing for Non-Obamacare — More Affordable — Insurance Plans

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A Trump administration effort to make more affordable, short-term medical insurance plans available to more people despite Obamacare’s onerous regulations survived a federal court challenge on Friday.

In a ruling for the United States District Court in Washington, D.C., Judge Richard Leon dismissed a challenge to the 2018 regulation brought by a group of organizations offering insurance plans. The suing organizations say that the rule undermined the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

“Not only is any potential negative impact” from the Trump regulation “minimal,” Leon wrote, “but its benefits are undeniable.”

In August 2018, the Trump administration announced a regulation that would re-expand the availability of short-term medical insurance plans that are less expensive partly because they are not subject to the same kinds of regulations that make Obamacare-compliant insurance plans so expensive.

“We will deliver relief to American workers, families, and small businesses, who right now are being crushed by Obamacare, by increasing freedom, choice, and opportunity for the American people,” read a statement from the president alongside the White House’s announcement.

Opponents of the plans say that these less expensive plans undermine Obamacare and provide people with spotty coverage.

However, since Congress set the Obamacare individual mandate penalty at zero, Judge Leon ruled that the new rule simply helps people who cannot afford skyrocketing insurance costs.

“Because Congress effectively eliminated the individual mandate, relatively healthy Exchange enrollees are no longer choosing between paying ACA-compliant plan premiums or a fine. Their choice now is between paying ACA plan premiums and going uninsured altogether,” Leon continued. “By modestly (re)expanding the utility of less expensive [less-regulated] plans, the Rule aims to minimize the harm and expense that would result from these individuals opting to forgo health insurance in the face of rising premiums.”

To claims that the short-term plans would sabotage Obamacare, Leon added, “There is no indication in the evidence submitted that the Rule is having or will have the type of impact — substantial exodus from the individual market Exchanges — that would threaten the ACA’s structural core,” despite plaintiffs’ claims to the contrary.

The judge also ruled that the Trump administration was completely within the power afforded to it by federal law to issue the rule, writing, “Congress clearly did not intend for the law to apply to all species of individual health insurance” because the lawmakers who passed it “were not rigidly pursuing the ACA-compliant market at all costs, e.g., at the risk of individuals going without insurance altogether.” (For more from the author of “Federal Judge Sides With Trump on Rule Allowing for Non-Obamacare — More Affordable — Insurance Plans” please click HERE)

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This Court Battle Could Be Our Last, Best Chance to Get Rid of Obamacare

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Obamacare is facing a new legal challenge today, this time before federal judges in New Orleans.

This challenge is all about the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, or the tax penalty for those who decide not to have health insurance. This was intended to pressure healthy people to buy insurance policies in order to offset the cost of people with more medical bills. From the beginning, Republicans have protested this idea.

While they haven’t been able to get rid of the mandate itself altogether, Republicans in 2017 eliminated the penalty for defying it. The legality of the mandate was then challenged by states including Texas in court in February 2018. A federal district judge ruled in favor of the states, but now the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will take up the case.

The district judge specifically looked at how the Supreme Court in 2012 said that the Affordable Care Act was constitutional because it falls under Congress’ power to levy taxes. Since these taxes have been eliminated, the judge said, this ruling no longer applied.

The Justice Department under Trump has said that “the balance of the ACA…must be struck down.

This may not be the last stop on the long fight over the individual mandate. No matter what the appellate court decides, the losing side in this case will almost certainly appeal to the Supreme Court. But that could take a while. It will likely be a few months before the appeals court makes a ruling. (For more from the author of “This Court Battle Could Be Our Last, Best Chance to Get Rid of Obamacare” please click HERE)

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