The deadline to address expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits is closer than anyone is prepared for… including the Republican party. At 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31, millions of Americans under Obamacare will be left helpless as subsidies are set to expire with no real alternative in sight.
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Remember when we told you Democrats caved to Congress Republicans to end the government shutdown last month? They did so with the promise that a vote to extend the Obamacare tax credits would happen before the rapidly approaching deadline. Republicans had all year to come up with a feasible plan to prevent millions of Americans from suffering. And at the 11th hour, it seems they’re finally going public.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, an avid Obamacare critic, told the public on Tuesday (Dec. 9) that there are two plans on the voting table. One is led by Democrats. The other is the brain child of two Republicans, Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo and La. Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chair the Finance and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committees. On Thursday (Dec. 11), both plans will be voted on.
While this is promising news, it’s unlikely that either bill will have the bipartisan support it needs to advance to the House… bringing us back to square one. “Our members — and I can’t say 100 percent, but I think for the most part, I would argue — are united behind the Crapo-Cassidy proposal,” Thune told reporters. The bill would need 60 votes to get to the next level.
The Republican proposal expectedly does away with the Obamacare extensions that Democrats pushed for. Instead, their plan is to help Americans pay for out of pocket expenses by taking the would-be money from the tax credits and adding it into health savings accounts under the bronze-level Obamacare plans, CBS News reported.
If passed, states would be required to verify citizenship and immigration status in order to avert “illegal immigrants” from signing onto the plan. It’s important to note that undocumented migrants have never been eligible for Obamacare. The proposal also wants to prevent the recovered funds from being used for gender affirming care or abortions.
President Donald Trump is backing the GOP healthcare plan, which is more than he’s previously done to quell growing concerns over his “concept of a plan” to get rid of Obamacare completely. Insiders believe his main beef with the current healthcare plan boils down to the president whose name is attached to the program: former President Barack Obama, the Hill reported.
On the flip side, the Democrat-led healthcare proposal would extend Affordable Care Act subsidies for an extra three years. This plan, according to Thune, is a disaster on top of the already shaky Obamacare program itself. “This is a failed program, and it does nothing but drive premiums up,” the Republican said of the expanded credits. “And the increase in premiums, who is that going to? That’s going to the insurance companies.”
Thune continued, “The proposal that we will put out there will bring insurance premiums down, it will be fiscally responsible.” He said, “It will get us away from the practice of giving the money all to the insurance companies and put it back in the hands of the patients.”
Over the past few months, Republicans have been scrambling to come up with an alternative to Obamacare, especially as it pertains to the tax credit extension. Out of all of the proposed choices, the one backed by Thune has become the frontrunner. Now, millions of Americans are on the edge of their seats, waiting to find out exactly what will happen to their healthcare bills by the start of the new year.
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