Today is the last day for Americans who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace to enroll in a 2026 plan to ensure uninterrupted coverage. Families across the country are facing unprecedented sticker shock as Trump and Republicans are doubling, tripling, and quadrupling their health premiums — all to fund another GOP billionaire and big corporation tax break. While congressional Republicans are in disarray on how to cover up their health care affordability crisis, Trump is nowhere to be seen, and hard-working Americans are paying the price of the GOP’s sheer incompetence. Instead of delivering health care solutions to end the Trump-GOP premium disaster, the GOP disarray has left millions of Americans preparing for impossible choices heading into the new year.
POLITICO: ‘Our Message Is Simple’: Democrats Unite as GOP Again Struggles to Address Health Care
- “Now rank-and-file Republicans in both chambers are privately strategizing about how to pull off an unlikely 11th-hour deal to avert a health care price shock that has triggered significant anxiety throughout the party about the political blowback they could face in the 2026 midterms. House GOP moderates negotiated an amendment vote that could tack a subsidy extension onto the leadership-backed health bill, but that vote is expected to fail and only serve as political cover for the vulnerable House Republicans.”
New York Daily News: Divided Republicans Scramble for Health Care Plan With Costs Set to Soar
- “With President Trump apparently not pressing for any deal, congressional Republican leaders pushed a grab bag of conservative health care policy priorities that would not extend tax credits for Affordable Care Act insurance plans, which will dramatically increase in 2026 for more than 20 million people if no action is taken. The GOP plan has virtually no chance of passing the Senate, where some Democratic support would be needed, leaving some moderate Republicans eyeing an 11th hour deal with Democrats to extend the Obamacare tax credits and avoid the spiraling cost increases that they fear could haunt them at the ballot box in the midterm elections.”
The New Republic: Mike Johnson’s Health Care Deal Crumbles Just in Time for Max Chaos
- “House GOP moderates are breaking away from their party leader. At least four Republican representatives—Brian Fitzpatrick, Jen Kiggans, David Valadao, and Mike Lawler—have decided to bypass House Speaker Mike Johnson altogether amid a disagreement on extensions for Affordable Care Act premium subsidies.”
- “But have no fear, Republicans have said they’ll focus on health care policy in the coming year—after millions of Americans lose their coverage.”
MS NOW: Why the House Republicans’ Health Care ‘Plan’ Isn’t a Serious Health Care Plan
- “For those keeping score, this proposal, unveiled late Friday by House GOP leaders, is one of at least 10 different health care bills pushed by congressional Republicans in recent weeks, as the party struggles to coalesce around a unified approach.”
- “As for the White House, which Republicans in both chambers keep looking to for some semblance of leadership or direction, Donald Trump has practically checked out of the process. Asked Friday for his message to the tens of millions of Americans facing dramatically more expensive health care insurance, the president replied: ‘Don’t make it sound so bad.’”
The Washington Post: Rank-And-File Republicans Feel Heat From Constituents on Health Care
- “Meanwhile, Trump is hardly engaging in the debate at all, beyond denouncing Obamacare as a ‘total disaster’ and offering hazy statements, as he has for years, that he has ‘a concept of a plan’ to replace it.”
The Wall Street Journal: Republicans Relive Healthcare Nightmare as Midterms Loom
- “Republicans suffered through a recurring nightmare this week: their inability to replace or at least unwind the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare program.”
- “Republicans’ healthcare conundrum helps explain why some GOP senators broke ranks to vote with Democrats on opening debate on extending the subsidies.”