Senate Dems' Obamacare fix fails as Senate looks for off-ramp from healthcare cliff
Senate Republicans rallied to block Senate Democrats’ extension of expiring Obamacare subsidies as both sides of the aisle suffer defeats on their proposals to deal with the looming healthcare cliff.
Over the course of the 43-day government shutdown, Senate Democrats made the longest closure in history all about the subsidies, which were passed and enhanced under former President Joe Biden.
They argued that if Congress didn’t act, Americans who rely on the subsidies would be hit with skyrocketing premiums. Their plan, however, was one that was never going to pass muster with the majority of Senate Republicans, who demanded myriad reforms to the program that they charged was rife with fraud.
DUELING OBAMACARE PLANS SET TO FAIL AS DEADLINE NEARS, PUSHING SENATE TOWARD BIPARTISAN TALKS
Only Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., split from their party to support Democrats' plan on an otherwise party line vote on Thursday, leaving the upper chamber without a solution to the fast-approaching deadline to either extend or replace the subsidies. Still, both sides of the aisle want to tackle rising healthcare costs, they just can’t agree on the best solution.
"We don't need to come up with the perfect plan," Hawley told Fox News Digital before the vote. "We need to say what will help right now to lower healthcare costs? That's a more achievable goal, and that's doable, so I am willing to vote for just about anything that has a legitimate shot at lowering healthcare costs right now. So that's where I'd start."
Senate Democrats’ plan, in comparison with Republicans’ offering that was blocked minutes before, was a straightforward three-year extension of the expiring enhanced subsidies.
But the plan did not include several reforms Republicans demanded, like measures to prevent fraud, income caps and more stringent enforcement of Hyde Amendment language that would prevent taxpayer dollars from funding abortions.
"Our bill is the only proposal on either side that has party-wide support on both sides of the Capitol," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., charged that Democrats’ proposal wasn’t based on reality.
"What [Schumer] is saying about a Democrat plan that will lower healthcare costs is a fantasy," Thune said. "It just is. It's a fantasy."
While neither side can reach a consensus on how to actually move forward on a healthcare plan, both recognize that time is running out to find a fix and that the cost of healthcare is running rampant.
SENATE DEMOCRATS PUSH OBAMACARE SUBSIDY VOTE 'DESIGNED TO FAIL' AS REPUBLICANS CALL PLAN UNSERIOUS
Democrats see the subsidies as a quick fix that can stop the bleeding, while Republicans are looking for broader, immediate reforms that could start putting a dent in healthcare costs.
Bipartisan talks have continued throughout the process, but those too are being hampered by the GOP’s red line on more stringent enforcement of anti-abortion measures on the Obamacare exchange, which is a nonstarter for Democrats.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., predicted that both Republicans’ and Democrats’ proposals would fail but that "hopefully, that keeps us working on getting something where we provide assistance, but get some reforms."
"But we can't keep just sending the money to insurance companies and continue this runaway medical inflation that just perpetuates the problem," Hoeven said.