Trump advisers working on plan to extend Obamacare subsidies: Do they have the votes?

Advisers to President Donald Trump have been working on a plan to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies for two years, but they may not have the votes required to do so in the House of Representatives.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, told the White House that most Republicans in his chamber do not support extending the subsidies, according to The Wall Street Journal. The subsidies help lower insurance premiums for millions of people who have coverage under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

The subsidies first passed in 2021 in a pandemic-era law and were later extended. They’re expiring this year.

If they’re not extended again, premiums could soar for about 22 million people, in some cases by thousands of dollars.

Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he doesn’t support an extension of the subsidies, according to the Journal. But he also said “some kind of extension might be necessary to get something done.”

The subsidies were at the center of the government shutdown that began in October and ended earlier in November. Democrats demanded an extension of the health care subsidies in exchange for their votes on a funding bill.

The shutdown ended when a group of Senate Democrats broke with their party and agreed to a deal to reopen the government.

The deal promised a vote in the Senate on extending the subsidies, but there was no guarantee it would succeed. Johnson did not even promise a vote in the House.

The emerging White House plan would extend the subsidies temporarily, but also impose income caps and measures to crack down on fraud, according to the Journal. Some Republicans also want to pair the end of the subsidies with the creation of health savings accounts.

The plan isn’t final and Trump hasn’t yet signed off, according to the Journal.

Although Johnson told the White House that most House Republicans don’t support an extension, some members in competitive districts have demanded one, the Journal said.

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