The Senate is set to vote Thursday on two separate plans aimed at addressing rising health care costs expected for tens of millions of Americans who receive enhanced tax credits from the Affordable Care Act unless Congress acts.
Both plans, one proposed by Democrats and the other championed by Republicans, are almost certain to fail.
After they do, lawmakers will have only a few days left to address the expiration of the enhanced tax credits, and there are few signs that any kind of progress is on the horizon.
Democratic Plan: Three-Year Extension of Expiring Enhanced Tax Credits
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks to reporters after a Senate Democratic policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on December 9, 2025 in Washington.
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The Democratic plan up for a vote Thursday proposes a three-year extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that would otherwise expire Jan. 1. The enhanced subsidies were originally implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During his floor remarks Wednesday, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the Democratic plan “the only realistic path left” to address the impending premium increase.
“We have 21 days until January 1. After that, people’s health care bills will start to skyrocket. Double, triple, even more,” Schumer said. “There is only one way to avoid all of this. The only realistic path left is the one the Democrats are proposing: a clean and direct extension of this urgent tax credit.”
Although Democrats are in the minority, their proposal will be voted on as part of a deal reached by a small group of Senate moderates to reopen the federal government after a 43-day shutdown, which focused on Democrats’ efforts to address expiring tax credits.
“What we have to do is keep premiums from skyrocketing and only our bill does that when the last train leaves the station,” Schumer said.
But any health care proposal in the Senate will require 60 votes to pass, meaning members of both parties would have to cast votes to approve a plan.
Majority Leader John Thune made clear Wednesday that Republicans will not support the Democratic plan.
Thune called the Democratic proposal an “exercise in partisan messaging” and said Democrats’ claim that their plan would reduce health care costs represented a “tour through fantasy land.”
Republicans have been saying for months that premium subsidies require reform. Without changes, Republicans say, the enhanced subsidies create opportunities for waste, fraud and abuse and have raised the overall cost of premiums.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that Senate Democrats’ proposal would add nearly $83 billion to the federal deficit over the next decade. The CBO also estimates that enacting the Democratic legislation would increase the number of people with health insurance by 8.5 million by 2029.
Addressing the cost of expanding subsidies, Thune said Democrats should present a blueprint that makes changes to the program.
“That’s not what they did… There’s no change,” Thune said. “Just continue to increase the cost. Raising the cost on the individual market like that, but making American taxpayers pay for it and then telling people they’re trying to keep their premiums down,” Thune said. “This does nothing, nothing, to lower the cost of health insurance.”
Republican Plan: Eliminate Enhanced Tax Credits and Create HSAs
Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks to the media at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Dec. 9, 2025.
Will Oliver/EPA/Shutterstock
Republicans will offer an “alternative” plan on the Senate floor on Thursday.
The Republican proposal, championed by Senate Health Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, would eliminate the enhanced tax credits and instead take the extra money from those tax credits and put it into health savings accounts. for those purchasing bronze-level or “catastrophic” plans on the ACA exchanges. Republicans say this will help Americans pay out-of-pocket costs.
Under the plan, people earning less than 700% of the federal poverty level would receive $1,000 in HSA funds for people ages 18 to 49 and $1,500 for people ages 50 to 64. Republicans say these funds could be used to help cover higher deductibles in lower-cost plans.
Republicans say their plan will lower premiums through cost-sharing reductions and say the plan will suspend payments to insurance companies. Thune called it “a very different business model” than what Democrats are proposing.
“The question is: Do you want the government to decide this or do you want to put this power and these resources in the hands of the American people?” Thune said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “American taxpayers. Patients. That’s what it’s all about.”“
This bill is also unlikely to pass the Senate on Thursday. Schumer called it “dead on arrival.”
“I want to be very clear about what this Republican bill represents: junk insurance,” Schumer said. “Let me tell my Republican colleagues: It’s dead on arrival. The proposal does nothing to reduce sky-high premiums; it doesn’t extend ACA premiums a single day. Instead, Republicans want to send people $80 and pretend that’s going to fix everything.” Schumer said.
Cassidy this morning called Schumer’s categorization of his plan as a “junk plan” “very ironic.”
“These are the Obamacare plans. These are the plans they put in place, except when they made them, they had $6,000 deductibles or $7,500 deductibles. We addressed that deductible. We improved these plans,” Cassidy said. “We Republicans are trying to make it better. We want money in your pocket for your out-of-pocket expenses. [costs]and they want you to be in charge of the whole thing.”
Democrats are also offended by provisions in the Republican bill that prevent funds from being used for abortions. Schumer, on the Senate floor, called it a “poison pill.”
Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, was asked if she saw any way Democrats could support the bill today.
“Not with the choice issues, where they’ve made it so that women can’t access an abortion through their plan,” Murray said. “I don’t see any way this will help people who are being hurt right now by the disappearance of tax credits.”
