Siobhan Hughes

Subsidies will revert to pre-pandemic levels and people making over 400 percent of the federal poverty line will lose subsidies entirely.

But that is not going to be the final word.

There is going to be a vote in January in the House on a three year extension of the subsidies.

And while that version is not going to make it into law, there are very intense and real conversations among both Republicans and Democrats about how to in some form extend these subsidies.

Oh, and by the way, Democrats have a hammer that they can use here.

Funding for much of the federal government expires starting on January 31st.

And so in theory, Democrats could trigger another government shutdown if they wanted to make a point about this.

So this forced maneuver could make it more likely to extend the subsidies?

Absolutely.

It's going to put enormous pressure on Republicans to do something because it puts a very fine point on the fact that their House majority is

is on the line over health care costs.

And it also reminds the Senate Republicans that they too could either lose or more likely see their majority diminished over this issue.

House Republicans know that they need to come up with an alternative, a way of showing that they too care about these high premiums.

Their answer, though, has nothing to do with extending federal government subsidies.

It has to do with technicalities involving funding certain cost-sharing reductions that go to low-income people on the exchange plans and also allowing more big groups to come up with their own health insurance.

Democrats don't like these so-called association plans because they don't mandate essential coverage, like for maternity care, for prescription benefits, the way your ACA plan does.

But nonetheless, Republicans have data showing that this would reduce premiums by about 11%.

Siobhan Hughes, thank you for joining us.

Thank you.