Congress failed to extend Obamacare subsidies. This Democrat says Trump can save them
Source: NPR
January 1, 2026 3:48 PM ET
Millions of Americans are facing higher health care premiums in the new year after Congress allowed Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire. But earlier this week, a bipartisan group of senators worked to strike a compromise that could resurrect the enhanced ACA premium tax credits — potentially blunting the blow of rising monthly payments for Obamacare enrollees.
"There's a number of Republican and Democratic senators who are seeing what a disaster this will be for families that they represent," Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said on Morning Edition Thursday. "That's the common ground here, and it's a doable thing."
Welch said he joined a bipartisan call Tuesday — first reported by Punchbowl News — in which a handful of senators charted out a possible health care compromise. "We could extend the credits for a couple of years, we could reform it," Welch said of the call. "You could put an income cap, you could have a copay, you could have penalties on insurers who commit fraud. You actually could introduce some cost saving reductions that have bipartisan support."
But according to Welch, this legislation is only doable with President Trump's blessing. "It would require that President Trump play a major role in this, because he has such influence over the Republican majority in the House and even in the Senate," Welch said.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2026/01/01/g-s1-104216/obamacare-subsidies-congress-peter-welch
Link to tweet
@AndrewDesiderio
News: Bipartisan group of senators met by phone today to discuss health care negotiations, per source familiar. Call was convened by Sens. Moreno, Shaheen & Collins. These 3 have been driving the train as of late. They plan to convene IRL when Senate returns next week.
Other participants on today’s call:
Hassan
Cassidy
Welch
Rosen
Warnock
King
4:37 PM · Dec 30, 2025
= new reply since forum marked as read
So don’t expect TSF to suddenly reverse course and support extension of ACA subsidies. This is exactly what they want.
Instead , we’ll probably get a barrage of propaganda that “it’s the fault of Democrats” that insurance rates are skyrocketing and ACA subsidies have ended.
