Democrats are escalating pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to schedule a vote on expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits that were central to the deal that ended the record federal shutdown.
They warned in a new letter that inaction will drive massive premium increases for millions of Americans.
In a letter shared with The Hill, Rep. Sharice Davids of Kansas led 58 Democrats in urging Johnson to "quickly" hold a vote on extending the enhanced tax credits for health insurance premiums, one of the key conditions moderate Senate Democrats set when they backed the government funding agreement with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.C.
Thune pledged to hold a Senate vote in the second week of December, but he did not promise passage. Johnson has made no similar commitment to follow suit in the House.
"Families across this country, on both sides of the political spectrum, are counting on us to do something to mitigate rising health care costs. Inaction here will decimate millions of Americans' budgets and force impossible decisions between receiving necessary care and other basic needs," the Democrats wrote.
Without action, the temporary enhanced tax credits that help enrollees under the ACA, also known as "Obamacare," afford monthly premiums will expire at the end of 2025, exposing many households to the full cost of their marketplace plans.
The credits, first expanded in 2021 and later extended through 2025, roughly doubled health coverage marketplace enrollment to more than 24 million people.
The Democrats' letter framed the lapse as a looming affordability crisis, not a partisan skirmish.
"For the past 50-plus days, you had kept the House of Representatives out of session while millions of Americans worry over how they'll be able to pay their health care bills in 2026," they wrote, citing recent economic analyses.
"Up to 24 million ACA enrollees are facing gross premium increases averaging 26 percent and actual monthly cost increases around 114 percent; some constituents have shared with us anticipated premium increases as high as 3,000 percent."
Conservatives, however, point to the growing fiscal cost and market distortions of repeatedly extending a pandemic-era subsidy expansion.
A recent issue brief from Republicans on the Joint Economic Committee argued that the enhanced credits have "outlived their temporary purpose," warning that "maintaining an unsustainable subsidy bubble perpetuates a broken incentive system that deepens market distortions, burdens the American taxpayer, and converts precious federal dollars into economic deadweight loss."
Through the shutdown, House Republican leaders resisted tying a full-year funding deal to health policy concessions, arguing that such reforms should be debated separately.
As the standoff dragged on, a small bipartisan group of House members released "principles" for a compromise that would temporarily extend the credits while adding an income cap and new guardrails to curb improper payments.
Democrats say those talks are moving too slowly and warn that some Republican replacement proposals could destabilize insurance markets.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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