Home Speaker Mike Johnson stated Monday there isn’t a rush to resolve skyrocketing Obamacare prices which are on the coronary heart of the contentious authorities shutdown, which was set to stretch on without end.
The Republican congressional chief dismissed the urgency to barter with Democrats to go off spiralling premiums for the government-backed heath insurance coverage program, although as much as 22 million People can be hit with sticker shock on Nov. 1 when annual enrollments begin.
“We have effectively three months to negotiate. In the White House and in the halls of Congress, that’s like an eternity,” Johnson advised MSNBC, referring to Jan. 1, when new insurance coverage would really take impact.
“We need folks in good faith to come around the table and have that discussion,” Johnson added. “And we can’t do it when the government is shut down.”
Johnson’s assertion underlines Democrats’ fears that President Trump and his Republican allies don’t have any plans to handle their calls for for concessions on Obamacare, which the GOP has lengthy despised, and Trump’s draconian cuts to Medicaid.
Democrats are demanding negotiations to make everlasting or lengthen a program subsidizing Obamacare premiums that’s set to run out on the finish of the yr.
Open enrollment in most states begins on Nov. 1, and large will increase in premiums may pressure thousands and thousands of People to not renew well being care protection, even when Congress later agrees to increase some or all of the subsidies and presumably reverse among the value hikes.
With Johnson and Trump vowing to not return to the negotiating desk on the problem, there’s scant hope for a deal to finish the shutdown anytime quickly.
The Senate was once more set to reject a Republican stopgap spending invoice that may reopen the federal government by extending funding until Thanksgiving. Solely three Democrats are backing the plan, leaving the GOP far in need of the 60 votes wanted to beat a filibuster.
Trump has vowed to hold out mass layoffs of presidency staff, taunting Democrats for giving the White Home extra powers by stumbling into the shutdown.
However to this point he hasn’t really made good on threats, presumably with an eye fixed on polls that present extra People blame Republicans for the shutdown.
SAUL LOEB/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson holds a press convention on the Capitol on Monday blaming Democrats for the federal government shutdown. (Picture by SAUL LOEB/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
Different painful issues stemming from the shutdown could quickly pile up.
A meals assist program that helps greater than 6 million low-income moms and younger kids will run out of federal cash inside two weeks, forcing states to make use of their very own cash to maintain it afloat or threat it shutting down, consultants say.
The $8 billion Particular Supplemental Diet Program for Girls, Infants and Kids, often known as WIC, gives vouchers to purchase toddler method in addition to recent fruit and veggies, milk and different wholesome staples.
Packages like WIC, which depend on annual infusions from the federal authorities, are practically out of cash as a result of they didn’t get funding as anticipated on Oct. 1. WIC is being stored afloat by a $150 million contingency fund, however it can rapidly run dry.
Initially Revealed: October 6, 2025 at 1:32 PM EDT
