Scott Simon

Of course, Republicans promised to vote on health care by mid-December.

What exactly are they going to vote on?

Well, it's worth noting that Senate Republicans promised this vote.

There were some informal bipartisan talks in the Senate during the shutdown about how to deal with these Affordable Care Act tax credits that are expiring at the end of this year.

One framework this Senate group is talking about would potentially extend these credits for one year and then phase in some reforms, maybe limit who's eligible for the tax credits, put in some provisions to crack down on waste, fraud and abuse.

I talked to New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen earlier this week.

She is a Democrat who's helping lead these negotiations.

She wants a bipartisan bill the president will sign.

She says she supports some of the changes that Republicans want in these tax credits.

For example, a cap on income and who can benefit from the premium tax credits.

I mean, that's legitimate.

Bipartisanship in the Senate is one thing, but the politics for House Republicans certainly are different.

Is Speaker Johnson planning a vote on health care?

Well, he certainly faces pressure from some of his swing district Republicans who want some kind of extension, maybe one year on these tax credits.

But the vast majority of House conservatives campaign to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, and they don't want to help extend any part of it.

Speaker Johnson is blaming Democrats for the rising costs of health care.

He says when they put the system into place, he claims that House Republicans has what he says volumes of ideas on reducing costs, but we haven't seen any actual details.

And based on what he said this week, he doesn't sound like this is something the House is going to move quickly on.

The Republicans would demand a lot of reforms before anything like that was ever possible.

And we have to go through that deliberative process.