WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a three-year extension of expanded Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies that had lapsed at the beginning of the year in a rebuke to House GOP leaders and President Donald Trump.
The bill passed 230 to 196, with 17 Republicans joining all Democrats in support.
It’s dead on arrival in the Senate, however, where Republicans are insisting on reforms to the program as well as additional restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion.
A group of bipartisan senators is working on a compromise measure that would extend the subsidies for two years, with much higher income limits on who can qualify, and require minimum premium payments.
But it is the abortion issue that is seen as the biggest hang-up. Trump this week urged Republicans to be “more flexible” on the matter, sparking sharp backlash from social conservatives in and out of Congress.
