House Democrats signaled they will keep pressing to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits after the government reopened on Nov. 12, accusing Republicans of creating what they said was a health-care cost crisis that still needs to be resolved.
Before the vote on the House floor to fund and reopen the government, Republicans, led by Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), countered that Democrats created the problem when they last controlled Congress and introduced enhanced ACA subsidies as a temporary program set to expire at the end of 2025, and are now demanding a renewal.
Scalise said that Republicans previously advanced a plan “to lower premiums for families by over 12 percent” through cost-sharing changes but Democrats blocked it in the Senate. He also said the ACA has driven costs higher over time and said Democrats used the shutdown for “leverage.”
The House passed the stopgap bill 222–209 on Wednesday, and President Donald Trump signed it a few hours later. Most Democrats voted no, saying the package failed to prevent Obamacare premium spikes during open enrollment, which began on Nov. 1. Democratic leaders said they support federal workers and services, both lost access to government funding during the shutdown, but would not back a bill that, in their view, leaves families exposed to sharp health insurance cost increases.
“We could not support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the healthcare of the American people,” Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Thursday morning on MSNBC.
Before the vote, Jeffries said Democrats would “fight until we win this battle for the American people” and pressed for an extension of the ACA tax credits for “working-class Americans, middle-class Americans, and everyday Americans.”
Democrats said the issue was about affordability, warning that families could face steep monthly increases without the credits and pointing to earlier Medicaid changes they say will exacerbate coverage losses and strain hospitals and clinics. Republicans said reopening had to come first and that health policy should be handled separately.
“Let’s get this government back open,” Scalise said as he urged a yes vote, saying that Democrats used the shutdown as political leverage.
Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said the bill restores pay and services and locks in full-year funding for military construction and veterans’ care, the legislative branch, and agriculture.
The Senate set the stage earlier in the week with a 60–40 vote to advance the same plan, with seven Democrats and independent Angus King of Maine joining Republicans.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) criticized the ACA premium tax credits Democrats seek to extend as measures that “rob the taxpayer.”“We’ve got a lot of work to do on that,” and that Republicans would “demand a lot of reforms,” he said.
