Senate votes to reopen the government as the future of health care subsidies remains uncertain
The Senate voted to reopen the government on Monday evening after the longest government shutdown in history even as Democrats’ hopes to extend health care subsidies remains unlikely.
After 40 days, 8 Democrats joined all but one Republican Senator on a continuing resolution to keep the government open until January. The vote sets up the House to vote on the resolution on Wednesday.
This comes despite the fact that many Democratic activists and almost every Democrat in the House of roundly criticized the agreement.
Democrats had opposed the continuing resolution because they had hoped to include an extension of enhanced tax credits for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplace that President Joe Biden put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since the enhanced tax credits began 24 million people get their insurance on the health insurance marketplace, according to KFF.
Open enrollment on the marketplace began this month and some people have reported seeing premiums double or even triple. KFF warned that subsidized enrollees could see their premiums go up by as much as 114 percent.
The revolt caused such a schism that Democratic congressional candidate Stefany Shaheen–the daughter of New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen who helped broker the agreement–criticized the agreement.
“My daughter’s very independent,” Sen. Shaheen told The Independent of her daughter. “That’s why she’s going to be such a great Congresswoman. And she knows a lot about the health care system, because she’s been working in it for over 20 years.”
The shutdown led to the Trump administration trying to make it as painful as possible, fighting in court to prevent the disbursement of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, and leading to the Federal Aviation Administration cutting thousands of flights.
President Donald Trump had floated the idea of terminating the filibuster after Democrats had used the 60-vote threshold to block any vote on a continuing resolution that the House passed in September.
But while Senate Republicans guaranteed a vote on extending the subsidies, it’s not guaranteed it could pass the Senate and House Speaker Mike Johnson did not guarantee a vote on them in the future.
Senate Democrats expressed doubt that Republicans would negotiate in good faith.
“Republican senators have never voted for the ACA,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told The Independent. “They’ve made it clear that their position, consistently over many years, has been to oppose more affordable, more accessible health care.”
Republicans have historically voted against the Affordable Care Act. During Trump’s first presidency, he attempted to repeal the law signed by President Barack Obama, only to see the vote fail in dramatic fashion during a late-night downvote.
Democrats have only 47 Senate seats meaning they would need to win over 13 Republicans. Already, Republicans have started to pour cold water on extending the subsidies.
