The central issue of this fall’s 43-day government shutdown was the demand by Democrats to extend expiring health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.
While Democrats failed to force any legislative changes on health insurance, the shutdown helped put increasing pressure on vulnerable Republicans in Congress. And this week, it paid off.
After House GOP leaders blocked action on a pair of bipartisan health insurance plans, four Republicans finally had enough. They signed a special petition to force a vote on a 3-year extension of the expiring subsidies from Democrats.
“I’m very happy that the American citizens can look forward to a late Christmas present delivered in January,” said U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia.
“Doing nothing was not an option,” said Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., one of three GOP rebels from Pennsylvania.
“The failure of leadership to allow a vote on the floor left me with no choice,” added U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.
The success of this discharge petition was yet another rebuke to U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who fights daily to preserve his narrow GOP majority.
“I have not lost control of the House,” he said while being mobbed by reporters on the way back to his Capitol office.
While no Georgia Republicans broke ranks with Johnson on health insurance, one voice again complained about GOP tactics: U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome.
“Health insurance is the coming crisis,” Greene warned in an interview with CNN. She again criticized Johnson for keeping the House at home for eight weeks during the shutdown battle.
“We could have been in Washington working day in and day out, preparing for this upcoming crisis,” said Greene, who will leave Congress in early January.
Instead, most Republicans seemed totally unprepared for a health policy fight, as Democrats trotted out story after story of people back home who would see giant increases in health insurance premiums.
“This really shouldn’t be happening,” said U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat.
“Working families in America are facing an affordability crisis,” added U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta.
Meanwhile, most Republicans have focused their fire on Obamacare.
“The Un-Affordable Care Act is broken,” declared U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-St. Simons Island. “Obamacare premiums have skyrocketed.”
The GOP divide on health care was a fitting coda to the first session of the 119th Congress. Republicans were able to pass tax cuts in their “big beautiful bill,” but not much else.
When Congress returns after Christmas, health insurance and affordability will be on the agenda in an election year.
Democrats may have lost the shutdown fight, but they successfully teed up a major issue for the 2026 midterms. And they definitely have Republicans on the defensive.
Jamie Dupree has covered national politics and Congress from Washington, D.C. since the Reagan administration. His column appears weekly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more, check out his Capitol Hill newsletter at http://jamiedupree.substack.com
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