Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican leading bipartisan Senate negotiations on a short-term health care plan, said the talks cannot proceed without “affirmative commentary” from Democratic leadership.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, has been casting doubt on the bipartisan talks amid a partisan disagreement on added abortion restrictions, which he has said is a nonstarter for his party.
He has also continued to push for a clean three-year extension of Democrats’ COVID-era expansion of Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, calling it the “only humane and right thing to do.”
The enhanced Obamacare subsidies, which capped out-of-pocket premium costs at 8.5% of household income, expired at the end of 2025.
The bipartisan Senate group has discussed a compromise plan that would renew the enhanced subsidies for two years but with an income cap at 700% of the federal poverty level and guardrails to protect against fraud.
President Trump released his own health care plan on Thursday that would end the pandemic bonus subsidies, which are paid directly to insurance companies to offset gross premium prices, and send money directly to consumers.
The bipartisan talks were already struggling, but Mr. Moreno does not believe the president’s proposal is a setback.
“No, the biggest wrench in our negotiations is that the Democrat leader has basically made public statements that, to me, sounds like he doesn’t want his conference to make a deal,” he said of Mr. Schumer. “Because what he doesn’t want is a reform. He wants a political issue.”
Mr. Moreno said if that is the case, the bipartisan group should discontinue its negotiations, which otherwise were set to continue into next week’s Senate recess.
“I need to hear some affirmative commentary from the Democrat leader that he would support an extension with reforms,” he said. “If the answer is no, then it doesn’t seem like we’re gonna have a deal.”
Mr. Schumer’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Democratic leader on Wednesday tried to clear a House-passed bill that would renew the enhanced subsidies for three years without changes by unanimous consent, but Republicans objected.
“Mark my words — if Republicans don’t do it, America will know, and the political price they pay will be severe,” Mr. Schumer said.
The House passed the three-year extension through a Democrat-led discharge petition. It received support from 17 Republicans, yet most of them voted that way to provide momentum for the bipartisan Senate negotiations, not because they want the enhanced subsidies to continue without changes.
Mr. Schumer acknowledged that Republicans have other ideas but suggested those negotiations could wait until the expired subsidies are renewed.
“There are other issues Republicans have out there. Some want to block it because they want to extend provisions that hurt women on the issue of abortion. Some want to block it because they want to privatize the system, which would make it only worse,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter. We can debate all those things down the road.”
Other Republicans involved in the bipartisan talks agree that Mr. Schumer’s posture has made it more difficult for Democrats in his caucus to cut a deal.
“I think where we’re at now is perhaps a decision by some of the Democrats that are saying, ’This will be a great political issue for us going into a campaign. So we didn’t fix it, and so we’re not going to fix it going forward,’” Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski said. “I refuse to accept that, because it means that we’re just willing to leave people hanging so that we can score political points. And that’s not what it’s about.”
