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Sens. Collins, King react after failure to move forward on health care subsidies

Photo: 560 WGAN Newsradio, Associated Press


Maine’s two U.S. Senators are weighing in after votes to extend health care subsidies under the Affordable Care Act failed in the Senate on Thursday.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins said she voted to proceed on separate bills put forward by both parties and filed amendments to both pieces of legislation.

“These taxpayer-funded credits must be reformed to ensure they are going to the low- and middle-income families and individuals who need them. It is not fair for the average taxpayer to subsidize the insurance premiums of individuals who are making hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Sen. Collins has supported extending the tax credits but says neither bill is the perfect solution.

Independent Sen. Angus King also supports extending the tax credits, saying an estimated 20,000 Mainers could lose insurance if no action is taken.

“Today’s votes represented a choice: a simple extension of the current health care insurance tax credits to stabilize costs or a complicated proposal that will not address the impending premium increases and threatens reproductive health.”

According to reporting by the Associated Press, Republicans have used the looming expiration of the subsidies to renew their longstanding criticisms of the ACA, also called Obamacare, and to try, once more, to agree on what should be done.

As Republicans and Democrats have failed to find compromise, senators voted on two partisan bills instead that they knew would fail — the Democratic bill to extend the subsidies, and a Republican alternative that would have created new health savings accounts.

It was an unceremonious end to a monthslong effort by Democrats to prevent the COVID-19-era subsidies from expiring on Jan. 1, including a 43-day government shutdown that they forced over the issue.

In the House, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has promised a vote next week on some type of health care legislation.

Republicans weighed different options in a conference meeting on Wednesday, with no apparent consensus.

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