Battleground Republicans clash with hard-liners over Obamacare subsidies as party talks health care strategy

A number of endangered GOP lawmakers on Wednesday privately pressed Republican leaders to address expiring Covid-era health care subsidies — but faced sharp pushback from the right flank of their party.

And House Republican leaders remained adamant that they did not support a short-term fix, making it increasingly likely that the GOP-led Congress will allow the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire at year’s end.

Inside a packed meeting of House Republicans, multiple battleground Republicans, including Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, called on Speaker Mike Johnson to put a bill on the floor that would extend the expiring subsidies for more than 20 million Americans. He argued that it needed to take priority over leadership’s other, longer-term health care plans that are expected to come to the floor next week.

GOP leaders are eying smaller-scale measures, such as expanding HSA accounts and expanding cost-sharing reduction — a way that helps offset costs for lower-income people by requiring insurers to pay more.