WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — White House extends a proposal that will expand subsidies to help consumers pay for coverage under the Affordable Care Act for two more years as millions of Americans face soaring health care costs when current tax breaks expire at the end of the year.
The draft plan assumes that President Donald Trump ready to extend Obamacare as his administration and congressional Republicans seek a broader political solution to a fight that has long baffled the party. The White House stresses that no plan is final until Trump announces it.
Subsidies were at the level the essence of the democrats' demands in the fight over the government shutdown that ended earlier this month. Most Democratic lawmakers have pushed for an outright extension of the tax breaks, which are set to expire at the end of the year, as a condition of keeping the government open.
Eligibility for Obamacare subsidies that were introduced in COVID-19 pandemic To help people afford health insurance, it would be capped at 700% of the federal poverty level, according to two people familiar with the proposal. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the White House proposal, which is in draft form.
The basic tax credits that were originally part of the Affordable Care Act were capped at 400% of the federal poverty level, but that cap was suspended due to temporary COVID-era credits that allowed middle- and high-income people to also benefit from the subsidies.
The White House will also require those on Obamacare, regardless of coverage type, to pay a certain premium for their Obamacare plans. It would effectively end zero-premium plans for people with lower incomes, alleviating Republican concerns that the program allows for fraud. One option is to require everyone to pay 2% of their income, or at least $5 per month for lower-tier plans.
Although the White House proposal continues to change, the idea of extending any part President Barack Obama's landmark legislative achievement would likely irritate conservatives who have been trying to repeal and replace the law for more than a decade.
“Until President Trump himself makes an announcement, any reports about the administration's positions on health care are merely speculation,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said Monday.
White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt told reporters Monday afternoon that Trump is “very active in these negotiations” and that he is “focused on delivering a health care proposal that will fix the system and lower costs for consumers.”
But there are signs that parts of the White House's nascent plan may get support from Democrats. New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan, one of eight members of the Senate Democratic caucus who voted to reopen the government earlier this month, said it “represents a starting point for serious negotiations.”
“The fact that President Trump is putting forward any proposal at all to extend the Affordable Care Act tax breaks shows that there is a broad understanding that inaction on this matter will cause serious harm to the American people,” Hassan said.
New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who led the bipartisan effort to end the government shutdown, added: “I'm glad the president is reportedly considering a serious proposal.”
“I’ve had constructive conversations with many of my Republican colleagues who I believe want to get this done,” Shaheen said. “They understand that the vast majority of people who benefit from these tax breaks live in states that the president won, and that the president's own polls have underscored the enormous political relevance of Republican actions.”
In 2017, Trump failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, an embarrassing defeat for Republicans who had just seized control of all levers of power in Washington. Since then, the Republican Party has failed to unite around a single health care proposal, and the expiration of pandemic-era subsidies gives Trump and his party the opportunity to make their own mark on the issue.
While the White House, under the guidance of the Domestic Policy Council, quietly worked on its plan, key lawmakers on Capitol Hill prepared their own proposals. For example, Florida Sen. Rick Scott, Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy and others have proposed various ideas to redirect program costs from federal subsidies into health savings accounts that participants could use to purchase plans or cover out-of-pocket expenses. Scott's plan has been discussed repeatedly at the White House since it was unveiled Thursday, according to a person familiar who was not authorized to discuss private conversations.
The White House's draft plan would allow those with lower-tier plans, such as bronze-level or catastrophic plans, to put money into health savings accounts.
It would also codify the “program integrity rule” to further help root out fraud, waste and abuse.
Americans buying Obamacare insurance are already facing the shock of higher prices because the window to choose coverage for next year opened Nov. 1. Without Congressional action, the average subsidized enrollee will face more than doubling their current premium costs next year, according to an analysis by nonprofit health care research organization KFF.
Recent National Polls showed Americans are concerned about health care costs along with wider accessibility issues. Those concerns played out in elections earlier this month that brought to power Democrats whose policy messages focused on the rising cost of living.
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Associated Press writers Fatima Hussain and Joey Cappelletti in Washington and Ali Swanson in New York contributed to this report.
