Hakeem Jeffries Says ACA Subsidies Bill Has Bipartisan Support

House Dems ACA 12/18/25 — Source: Tom Williams / Getty

During an interview on Sunday, House Minority Speaker Hakeem Jeffries expressed confidence that a bill extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies for three years will pass with bipartisan support in the House.

According to Politico, Jeffries was dismissive of Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s claims that a clean, three-year extension to the subsidies would be dead on arrival in the Senate during a Sunday morning interview with ABC’s Jonathan Karl on This Week. Jeffries said Thune “is not serious about protecting the health care of the American people.”

“It will pass, with a bipartisan majority, and then that will put the pressure on John Thune and Senate Republicans to actually do the right thing by the American people: pass a straightforward extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits so we can keep health care affordable for tens of millions of Americans who deserve to be able to go see a doctor when they need one,” Jeffries said.

ACA subsidies have become a hot-button issue in Congress in recent months. The ACA subsidies were initially implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure as many people as possible were insured in case they contracted COVID. Despite numerous studies showing that letting the subsidies expire would increase monthly health insurance premiums anywhere between 75% to 110%, and a wide swath of Americans in the midst of an affordability crisis, Republicans showed no urgency in extending the subsidies or implementing a meaningful solution.

Their lack of urgency ultimately led Senate Democrats to trigger the longest government shutdown in American history in October. The shutdown ended after over a month with no deal to extend the subsidies, but with Thune only promising a vote on extending them. In addition to the vote on the subsidies, Senate Republicans also introduced a mediocre health care plan of their own, to put it politely. Instead of extending the subsidies or lowering premiums, the Republican plan would have created health savings accounts for bronze-level plans. Neither the extension to the subsidies nor the Republican health care plan received the necessary votes to pass.

It didn’t appear things were going any better in the House. House Majority Speaker Mike Johnson refused to bring a vote on extending the ACA subsidies, instead choosing to introduce yet another mediocre health care plan that wouldn’t meaningfully lower prices. Johnson’s decision not to hold a vote on extending the subsidies angered several centrist Republicans in the House who represent competitive districts in next year’s midterms. As a result, four House Republicans signed onto a discharge petition that forces a vote on extending the subsidies. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) said in an interview with Fox News that, despite Senate Republicans’ opposition, the bill to extend the subsidies is intended as a starting point for more robust health care reform. Fitzpatrick is one of the House Republicans who signed the discharge petition, and Suozzi praised him for his willingness to work across the aisle on the issue.

While Jeffries drove home the necessity of the subsidies, he stopped short of saying the health care system needed to be reformed, saying only “there are a variety of different things that need to be done.”

It’d be so lovely if establishment Democrats could end their love affair with half measures.

This whole situation has shown that we need meaningful reforms to the ACA and the American healthcare system as a whole. I’m an ardent supporter of the ACA; it has kept me insured at a time when fewer employers offer coverage. But I’m also paying nearly $200 for a plan that offers much less than the one I had the year before. As layoffs continue to increase, and full-time work seems to be a thing of the past, we need an affordable, robust public healthcare system. Otherwise, we’re just going to be doing this same song and dance for years on end.

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