Bipartisan Obamacare fix nears vote, but abortion dispute remains sticking point
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A bipartisan group of senators is nearing a final plan to combat rising health care costs, but the issue of stricter restrictions preventing taxpayer-funded abortions remains a major obstacle to a deal.
The working group, led by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, has held several meetings since partisan proposals to extend or replace expired enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies failed late last year.
Now they’re on the verge of revealing their plans and have begun sharing exactly what the rough framework will look like. But while selling the bones of the latest idea to combat health care will be one thing, tackling the problem of taxpayer-funded abortion will be another.
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Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, has laid out a long-in-the-works framework for a bipartisan plan to tackle health care, but the taxpayer-funded abortion issue still threatens to derail the deal. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
The Hyde Amendment, which states that taxpayer money cannot fund abortion, has proven to be a sticking point on both sides of the aisle. Senate Republicans argue that Obamacare does not fully comply with the law, while Senate Democrats argue that there is no need to make any changes to the long-standing law.
“There is no disagreement that there should be no federal funding for abortion,” Moreno said. “Nobody on either side wants to debate that question again. So we’ve crossed that mountain. The next mountain is a debate about whether this actually happened today.” [Obamacare]”
“There’s a group of people, very good people, who say it’s happening, and a group of other people, who are good people, say it’s not happening,” he continued. “Then we have to figure this out.”
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President Donald Trump speaks during the presentation of the Mexican Border Defense Medal in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on December 15, 2025. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters Photos)
This wrinkle in particular was further reinforced by President Donald Trump, who said earlier this week that House Republicans “need to be a little flexible” on the Hyde Amendment. This edict was met with reaction from Senate Republicans, who argued that there was no room for flexibility on this issue.
Moreno did not say whether the current plan addresses the Hyde issue, but he laid out what the skeleton framework senators created would look like.
This plan will take more than two years and act as a temporary solution rather than a permanent bridge. This will be crucial in selling the plan to his Republican colleagues, Moreno said.
YOU JIM JUSTICE SAYS REPUBLICANS ARE ‘BAD’ AT KNOWING WHAT EVERYDAY AMERICANS THINK ABOUT HEALTH
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is working with a group of Senate Democrats and Republicans to develop a plan to tackle expiring Obamacare subsidies. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
“That’s an important thing that I have to persuade my Obamacare-hating, policy-hating colleagues to understand and say, ‘Let’s take two years to provide truly affordable health care to the American people and fix this problem for the people who are going to suffer as a result of not having these enhanced premium tax credits,'” Moreno said. “They didn’t cause the problem, the politicians caused the problem.”
Their plan would initially extend subsidies by two years and extend open enrollment in the Obamacare marketplace to March 1.
In the first year, an income cap would be added, which was blown away when subsidies were raised to 700% of the federal poverty level under former President Joe Biden. There will also be a requirement to pay a minimum premium of $5 or $60 as a method of preventing fraud. This will include a $100,000 fine for insurance companies that “intentionally cause and contract fraud.” [someone] He took off without their consent.”
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In the second year, people will have the option of either sticking with the subsidies or switching insurance plans in favor of a health savings account (HSA); This is an important demand of Republicans and Trump.
Their plan would also reintroduce cost-sharing reduction payments, “according to which [Congressional Budget Office]Moreno said everyone on the exchange would reduce their premiums by 11%.
