Mike Johnson’s Next Move on Health Care Is Absolutely Brutal

It’s official: House Speaker Mike Johnson is letting the Affordable Care Act subsidies expire—and Republicans are pissed.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Johnson said that Republican leadership just couldn’t get on the same page about extending Obamacare tax credits. “In the end, there was not an agreement,” he said.

This is an apparent reversal after one Republican aide indicated last week that GOP leadership “would allow” for a floor vote on extending subsidies, at the behest of moderate Republicans who wanted the opportunity to voice their support for an extension.

Representative Mike Lawler, one of those moderate Republicans, was furious over Johnson’s decision.

“I think it’s idiotic not to have an up-or-down vote on this issue,” Lawler fumed after Tuesday morning’s House Republican Conference, arguing that Johnson was committing “political malpractice.”

“I am pissed for the American people. This is absolute bullshit,” he said.

After this week, Congress is out of session until 2026, and the enhanced tax credits expire on December 31. Starting in January, insurance premiums are set to skyrocket, and premiums for some individuals will increase by as much as double.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters that Republicans had chosen another path. “I think after everybody talked, they decided they didn’t want to go forward, you know, with the options that were out there,” he said. “So, you know, in the end we have a bill that lowers premiums for 100 percent of Americans. Democrats are only focused on bailing out insurance companies for less than 10 percent of Americans.”

Last week, Republican leadership unveiled their own disastrous plan to lower health care costs, which did not include extending subsidies.

Instead, they proposed that Americans be given cash directly into health savings accounts paired with high-deductible health plans, meaning higher insurance premiums would theoretically be replaced by higher out-of-pocket costs.