For Democrats, the looming shutdown deadline is about one thing: Party leaders want to negotiate a bipartisan deal to preserve subsidized coverage for Americans through the Affordable Care Act. Failure to do so would cause premium prices to soar and make health security unaffordable for millions of families.
The standard response from Republicans is that the subsidies don’t expire until the end of the year, so there’s no need to have this fight now. As a factual matter, that might seem like a credible point: It’s true that while the shutdown deadline is just five days away, the ACA deadline isn’t until Dec. 31.
But the details matter. As NBC News reported:
While they officially expire after the last day of 2025, there is some urgency to act soon: Insurers are filing their rates over the next few weeks, and open enrollment begins Nov. 1. Failure to act by then could cause many people to drop their coverage for 2026.
“Technically, the enhanced ACA tax credits don’t expire until December 31. But, the longer Congress waits to extend them, the more damage and chaos there will be in the meantime,” Larry Levitt, a health care policy expert at KFF, a nonpartisan research group, told NBC News.
“If open enrollment starts November 1 without the tax credits extended, ACA enrollees are going to log in to their accounts and see average out-of-pocket premium increases averaging over 75%. Their eyes are going to pop out of their heads, and many will likely decide not to enroll,” he continued.
Time, in other words, is of the essence.
As for whether a shutdown can still be avoided, there’s little reason for optimism. House Republican leaders left town last week and don’t plan to return until after the deadline, and Senate Republican leaders also decided not to be on Capitol Hill this week, despite the work that obviously needs to be done.
For his part, Donald Trump agreed to open negotiations with Democratic leaders and then changed his mind less than a day later. What’s more, the president continues to tell the public about Democratic demands in delusional ways, describing policy goals that Democrats are not seeking and have never requested. (I’m not even sure what “Transgender for EVERYBODY” is supposed to mean.)
Meanwhile, the White House budget office, led by Russell Vought, is preparing for next week’s developments in provocative ways. NBC News also reported:
The White House is raising the stakes of a potential government shutdown by drafting a request for federal agencies to prepare ‘reduction in force’ plans in case Congress doesn’t pass a spending bill before Oct. 1. In a memo from the Office of Management and Budget, obtained by NBC News, the Trump administration indicated it’s prepared to go beyond the traditional furloughing of some government employees during shutdowns and fire federal employees.
Obviously, this is a ploy intended to get Democrats to cave. “Agree to the GOP plan,” the White House is saying, “or we’ll announce a mass firing.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer didn’t sound especially intimidated by the threat.
“This is an attempt at intimidation,” the New York Democrat said in a statement. “Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one—not to govern, but to scare. This is nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government. These unnecessary firings will either be overturned in court or the administration will end up hiring the workers back, just like they did as recently as [Wednesday].”
The latest government shutdown is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, Sept. 30, at midnight. Watch this space.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
