As the deadline to address enhanced tax credits in the Affordable Care Act expires, Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced Tuesday that two competing plans — one led by Democrats and the other by Republicans — will get votes in the Senate on Thursday.
But neither bill is expected to have the support it needs to move forward, leaving tens of millions of Americans in the balance who could see their health care costs rise early in the new year.
The Republican plan
Thune’s announcement on Tuesday marked the first time Senate Republicans appeared to coalesce around a single health care plan to address anticipated price increases for Americans currently receiving ACA tax credits in 2026.
The proposal 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 who purchase 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 percent of the federal poverty level would receive $1,000 in HSA funding for those ages 18 to 49 and $1,500 for those ages 50 to 64.
Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Shutterstock – PHOTO: Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks to reporters outside his office at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Dec. 3, 2025.
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The plan was first unveiled by Senate Health Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo on Monday.
The senators say they would lower 2027 premiums by 11 percent by funding cost-sharing reductions and empower Americans to choose the insurance plan that “fits their needs.” The proposal also requires states to verify citizenship and immigration status before coverage to prevent “illegal immigrants” from accessing Medicaid. In addition, the proposal would prevent funds from being used for abortions and gender-affirming care.
Thune said the plan is an effort to reform the ACA and address GOP concerns that increased tax credits have driven up insurance premiums. It also, they say, gives money directly to patients, just as President Donald Trump has said he wants to happen.
Yuri Gripas/EPA/Shutterstock – PHOTO: President Donald Trump attends a roundtable discussion in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, December 8, 2025.
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“This is a failed program and it does nothing but raise premiums,” Thune said of the expanded tax credits that Democrats want to keep in place. “And the premium increase, who will it go to? That will be to the insurance companies.”
Thune added, “So the proposal we’re going to put out there will lower insurance premiums, be fiscally responsible, and move us away from the practice of giving all the money to insurance companies and putting it back into the hands of patients.”
That plan has emerged as the most popular choice for Republicans in a crowded field of GOP health care proposals that have emerged in recent weeks. Thune said he believes the majority of his conference supports him.
“What I can tell you is as a conference, our members — and I can’t say 100 percent, but I think for the most part — are united behind the Crapo-Cassidy proposal which, as I said, in terms of its focus, is about patients, not insurance companies, and lowering premiums, not raising them, and getting a better return for the federal taxpayer,” Thune said.
The Democratic Plan
The Democrat-led bill would extend expiring ACA tax credits by three years.
The next vote, which took several weeks, is being awarded to Democrats as part of a deal that was struck in November to end the record 43-day government shutdown.
Democrats won no concrete health care concessions as part of the government funding deal. But they were promised a vote on a health care bill of their choice and chose this 3 year extension.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP – PHOTO: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries meet with reporters on health care affordability on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 3, 2025.
“Democrats have proposed the cleanest, fastest and most realistic solution: a three-year extension of the current tax credits. No gimmicks, no poison pills,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat.
Schumer’s strategy aligns with Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ proposal in the House, where Democrats have filed a discharge petition to force a vote on extending the tax credits for three years. The petition received 214 signatures, just four short of triggering a vote in the lower house. So far, no Republicans have signed on to the effort.
Will either plan pass the Senate?
Both bills are almost certain to fall short of the 60 votes they need to advance in the Senate on Thursday.
Thune has repeatedly criticized the Democratic plan for failing to implement reforms to the ACA.
“There’s no income limit, it’s $0 premiums. There are millions of Americans who don’t even know they have coverage, they’ve decided to do nothing — zero, zero reforms to this program and so the bill they’re going to bring up will fail,” Thune said.
Meanwhile, Schumer dismissed the “bogus” Republican plan as “dead on arrival.”
“Their bill is junk insurance. It has been rejected in the past. The American people will reject it again because junk insurance puts a burden on people,” Schumer said.