Washington — Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced Tuesday that Republicans intend to bring a GOP-led health care bill to a vote along with Democrats’ proposal to extend the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced tax credits later this week.
“This program desperately needs to be reformed, the Democrats decided, ‘We’re not going to do anything to reform it,’ and then we’ll see where the votes are on Thursday,” Thune said at a news conference after a lunch meeting of Republican senators on Tuesday. “But we will have an alternative that we will put forward that reflects the views of the Republicans here in the United States Senate.”
Thune, Republican of South Dakota, said the Senate would vote on a measure unveiled earlier this week by GOP Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mike Crapo of Idaho.
The legislation, called the Health Care Freedom for Patients Act, does not extend the enhanced tax credits. Instead, it will redirect funds to health savings accounts for those using bronze plans on state exchanges.
“It actually makes health insurance premiums more affordable,” Thune said. “It gives the benefit directly to the patient, not the insurance company, and it does it in a way that actually saves the taxpayer money. This is a win-win proposition.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks to reporters after a Senate Republican policy dinner at the U.S. Capitol on December 9, 2025, in Washington, DC / Credit: Heather Diehl / Getty Images
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who spoke shortly after Thune, called the Cassidy-Crapo bill “junk insurance.”
Thune’s announcement comes as Democrats plan to bring a three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced tax credits to a vote on Thursday. Democrats have the option of submitting a bill of their choice as part of the deal that ended the government shutdown.
The enhanced premium tax credit helped an estimated 22 million low- and middle-income Americans buy health insurance in 2025. Premium costs are expected to increase by an average of more than $1,000 a year when they expire in January, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. And KFF estimated that the expiration of the tax credits would more than double annual premiums, from $888 on average in 2025 to $1,904 in 2026.
The Democratic measure planned in the Senate is highly unlikely to gain support from enough Republicans to advance, although Democrats hope it will force GOP members to take a politically unpopular vote against extending the subsidies. A side-by-side vote on the GOP proposal is likely to ease some pressure on Republicans, although some have favored the exercise, as it is unlikely to produce a solution.
Senate Republicans have been considering the way forward for weeks, and a number of other GOP lawmakers have unveiled their own plans in recent days. Some of those proposals would extend the tax credits with new limits, including a plan by Sens. Bernie Moreno of Ohio and Susan Collins of Maine to extend them by two years. Another plan by Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas would extend the credits by a year before redirecting the funds into HSA-style accounts in 2027.
With 53 Republicans in the upper chamber, the GOP-led bill is not expected to garner enough support to meet the 60-vote threshold needed to advance most legislation in the Senate. The Democratic bill is also expected to fail.
Thune told reporters Tuesday morning that Republicans do not see the Democratic bill “as a lawmaking exercise.”
“The Democrats clearly don’t, and that’s why they’re putting up what’s a show vote — it’s a messaging bill,” Thune said. “And then we will see after this if they are serious or not to do something, and if there are enough of them to find a way forward. We will see.”
Thune said the Democrats’ plan is designed “to make a political point.”
“At some point if they want to make a law, I think we have people on our side who are interested in doing that,” he added.
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