A bipartisan Senate group is nearing an agreement to revive lapsed Obamacare subsidies, with a key negotiator saying the group could release draft legislation early next week.
The deal being discussed by the senators would reestablish the enhanced tax credits that expired Jan. 1 for two years, with new restrictions including minimum premium payments and income caps. The developing agreement would pair that with new cost-sharing reduction measures and expanding access to health savings accounts.
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), a key negotiator, said Wednesday that legislative text could be finalized “realistically, probably Monday.”
Two other people granted anonymity to disclose private negotiations characterized the Senate group as close to an agreement. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) added she was “encouraged” by the group’s progress and agreed an agreement is close.
Even if the fluctuating group of roughly a dozen lawmakers is able to come to a consensus, there’s no guarantee it will get the votes to pass. Senators have been keeping their leadership in the loop on the talks and will meet this week with House lawmakers to update them on their progress.
The group is eyeing an income restriction for the subsidies that would exclude those earning more than about 700 percent of the federal poverty level, as well as a $5 a month minimum premium. They would also slap steep new fines on any insurance companies that add so-called phantom enrollees, meaning people who are signed up for subsidized coverage without realizing it.
Under the discussions, according to Moreno, Americans who receive the Obamacare subsidies could choose to have the money go instead into a pre-funded health savings account during the second year of the extension.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who has been involved in some of the group’s discussions, cautioned that there were “still some major stumbling blocks.”
Moreno, for instance, did not say how the group was going to resolve concerns that the tax credits could be used to subsidize coverage of abortions. But he said the framework of the agreement, as he had described it, does not change current abortion policy and that the abortion discussion remained a “peripheral” issue.
“We’re trying to resolve how we ensure compliance with the spirit” of the Hyde Amendment, Moreno said, referring to the longstanding appropriations restriction preventing taxpayer funding of abortions.
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