U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speak with reporters during a press conference in the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer announced Thursday the chamber will vote next week to extend enhanced tax credits for three years for people who purchase their health insurance from the Affordable Care Act marketplace, though the plan seems unlikely to get the bipartisan support needed to advance. 

While it would typically be difficult for the minority leader to schedule a floor vote, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., agreed that Democrats could bring up a health care bill of their choosing in exchange for voting to end the government shutdown.

Schumer told reporters in recent days to “stay tuned” for details about the legislation while maintaining all Senate Democrats were united around the proposal. The three-year plan he previewed during his floor speech appears identical to one House Democratic leaders have been pressing for in that chamber. 

“Any Republican who claims to care about premium increases on January 1 has only one realistic path, and that’s to support our bill for a simple, clean, three-year extension,” Schumer said. “If Republicans block our bill, there’s no going back. We won’t get another chance to halt these premium spikes before they kick in at the start of the new year.” 

The vote will take place next Thursday, Schumer said. 

Clock ticking on solution

Health care costs have surged to the forefront of the national conversation in recent months, with both Democrats and Republicans in Congress pledging to find solutions. Both agree much more time is needed to make larger, structural changes. 

The Senate committee in charge of health care policy held a hearing Wednesday where senators began to coalesce around extending the enhanced tax credits beyond the end-of-December sunset date. But a bipartisan bill has not yet been introduced in that chamber on that subject. 

Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Bill Cassidy, R-La., said just after the hearing wrapped up there will likely be a GOP bill, or even a bipartisan one, to counter Schumer’s bill. 

“Yeah, absolutely,” Cassidy said. “I’d like to have a plan that both sides can vote for. But there will be a Republican plan if I have anything to do with it.”

Congress has an especially brief time frame to find a short-term resolution on the expiring tax credits, which would lead the cost of ACA marketplace plans to rise by hundreds or thousands of dollars. 

Open enrollment for ACA marketplace plans ends at different times throughout the country, with some states finishing on Dec. 15. Residents of other states are able to sign up through varying dates in January, but with their coverage starting later in the year. Lawmakers are set to leave Capitol Hill on Dec. 19 for their winter holiday break. 

A poll released Thursday by the nonpartisan health organization KFF showed nearly 60% of ACA marketplace enrollees could not cover the costs of a $300 annual increase in their premiums, while an additional 20% said they couldn’t afford a $1,000 jump in prices per year. 

Gottheimer, Kiggans unveil House bipartisan bill

At the same time Schumer was speaking on the Senate floor, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers, led by New Jersey Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer and Virginia Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans, introduced a bill they said could address some of the short-term issues facing ACA enrollees. 

“Although we may have different opinions over the long-term solutions for reforming marketplace health care or if there are even better and cheaper options for publicly available health insurance, we agree on the many aspects of the short-term solutions,” Kiggans said. 

The legislation — which needs to pass a floor vote, make it through the Senate and garner President Donald Trump’s signature — would extend the enhanced ACA marketplace tax credits with new income caps, “guardrails for waste, fraud and abuse” and an overhaul of the pharmacy benefit manager, or PBM, system, Kiggans said. 

The bipartisan group of representatives would then move on to the second part of their plan, not included in the bill, where they would try to make more structural changes to the entire country’s health care system. 

Those bills, Kiggans said, would address hospital billing transparency, implement Health Savings Accounts and advance the Give Kids a Chance Act “to accelerate pediatric cancer treatments and expand access to life-saving therapies for children battling rare diseases.”

Gottheimer said the group wants House leaders to put their bill up for a vote before members leave town for the two-week, end-of-year break. 

“In the last month, families have seen their health insurance premiums surge as they’ve shopped for insurance during open enrollment because enhanced premium tax credits are set to expire, as we all know, at the end of the year,” Gottheimer said. “In fact, because of this, for millions of families on the ACA, their health premiums will rise an average of 26% next year. 

“In Jersey, where we live, it could be even rougher with a 175% increase. That’s $20,000 for a family of four. And that’s why we’re all here together to try to solve this problem, do something about it, and avoid a massive new tax on hard-working families,” he said.

Senators don’t see future in bipartisan House bill

Schumer and other Senate Democrats didn’t appear to take the bipartisan House plan seriously when pressed about it during an early afternoon press conference, asking reporters in the room whether Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., would actually put it on the floor for a vote. 

“As for whatever House proposals there are, we’ll always look at something, but I don’t even see 15 Republicans supporting it right now,” Schumer said. “Sure an individual or two or three people can say this or that. It’s not going to solve the problem.”

Schumer maintained Senate Democrats’ three-year extension, which does not come with income caps or other changes to the tax credits proposed by centrist Republicans, is the best path forward.

He appeared frustrated when reporters asked him why he didn’t include changes that could have swayed at least some GOP senators to vote for the bill. 

Schumer said it wasn’t worth it for Democrats to put together a bill that a few Republicans might support when he doesn’t expect Speaker Johnson to put the bill on the floor in that chamber given strong opposition to the enhanced tax credits by “half his caucus.”

“Come on,” he said. “The fault is there, not with us.”