Speaker Mike Johnson expressed fresh skepticism Friday that a deal to extend Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies — a key Democratic demand amid the 10-day government shutdown — is within reach.
Speaking on a rare joint call with House Freedom Caucus members Friday, Johnson said “it will take a lot of work to build consensus” on any bipartisan deal to address the tax credits expiring Dec. 31, “if there is even any version of a reform that could find consensus and pass.”
Those doubts from Johnson reflect widespread sentiment inside the House GOP opposing to any extension of the subsidies, though there some House Republicans who want to make a deal. The speaker made clear on the call he won’t provide Democrats any assurances that the kind of agreement they’re seeking to reopen the government can ever be reached. He also reiterated that any deal on the tax credits is an “end-of-the-year policy decision,” even though some of his own GOP members want to show progress before open enrollment for ACA plans begins Nov. 1.
“There’s no way for us to project today what that final outcome would be, because we’re in a deliberative body with 535 members, and it takes a lot of time to reach a point of decision on a matter like that,” Johnson said. “The Democrats know that.”
Democrats continued insisting Friday that a deal to extend the subsidies is a firm condition for ending the shutdown. “What we said to our Republican colleagues is, we have to address the health care crisis that they’ve created decisively,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. “That means legislatively.”
Besides health care, Johnson raised another issue on the call that could cause Democrats to dig in further: potentially clawing back more congressional approved funding. Ending so-called rescissions are another key Democratic demand for ending the shutdown. But Johnson said more could be coming imminently.
“We worked on rescissions, and there’ll be more of that, we expect, in the days ahead,” he said.
Johnson also raised the prospect of a more thorough overhaul of health care policy, saying lawmakers “need to bring down the cost of health care, accessibility, and increase the quality of care, but it’s going to take us some time to do that, because the roots of Obamacare are ingrained in so deep.”
Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), the Freedom Caucus chair, also said Friday he wanted “a more comprehensive health policy deal,” not just an extension of the expiring tax credits, while House Majority Leader Steve Scalise separately bashed the ACA.
Scalise told reporters the solution is to expand Health Savings Accounts and association health care plans — both of which were elements of ACA replacement plans that the GOP attempted and failed to pass in 2017.
Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.
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