The GOP Split on Possible Health-Law Fixes

A month before the Supreme Court is expected to rule on a key component of the Affordable Care Act, congressional Republicans are split over their strategy for handling the possible fallout.

Republicans, who control both houses of Congress, are divided over whether to extend temporarily the health law’s tax credits if the court voids them in most of the country. An extension, some lawmakers say, would buy them time to enact a broader overhaul of the 2010 health law they have long opposed.

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The court will decide by the end of June whether people can continue to receive subsidized insurance coverage in as many as 37 states. Justices heard arguments in March on a legal challenge organized by a libertarian think tank that contends language in the health law limits the credits only to residents of states that set up their own online insurance exchanges—and not to the majority of Americans who obtained coverage through HealthCare.gov because their states didn’t create exchanges.

Sen. Ron Johnson, center, is among Republicans who 
would back an 18-month extension of health-law subsidies.

If the credits disappear in the middle of the year, many other aspects of the law could rapidly become unworkable. Neither supporters nor opponents are certain about what could happen next, although both say there would be widespread disruption. 

The idea of a short-term extension of up to 18 months for the tax credits had been proposed by GOP Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and has won backing from Senate leaders including John Barrasso of Wyoming.

Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ)

In the House, that idea also has some support, especially from centrist Republicans. “We really need a thoughtful soft landing, an off-ramp solution” that will give the GOP time for a shift to a health-care plan of its liking, said Rep. Martha McSally, an Arizona Republican who defeated a Democratic incumbent by 161 votes last year. “We don’t need the whole thing blowing up on our watch,” she said.

But some conservatives want the Republican Party to hold firm and refuse any reauthorization of the credits for the law they call “Obamacare.”

Any plan that includes subsidies, even for a brief period, would be “real problematic,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. “We have to say: ‘Here’s our replacement that will make health care better,’ but not any type of fix to the plan,” he said.

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