After having successfully gutted Medicaid by around $1 trillion by supporting President Donald Trump’s "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," Republican lawmakers are now “painfully divided” on how to shore up health care subsidies ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, a division that could lead to “political disaster.”
“Republicans detest the idea of spending billions of dollars to shore up the Affordable Care Act,” wrote journalists Burgess Everett and Eleanor Mueller in a report published Monday in Semafor, who also noted that GOP lawmakers were "painfully divided" on the issue. “They are also realizing that the alternative could be a political disaster.”
Also known as Obamacare, the ACA offers subsidies for Americans who fall into what’s known as the "coverage gap:" those whose incomes are too great to be eligible for Medicaid, but too low to afford health insurance on the private market, and are typically not covered through their employer.
Republican lawmakers are now faced with the decision of reupping ACA subsidies, but according to those who spoke with Semafor, a consensus is far from being achieved.
“The Freedom Caucus is against that. I mean, it’s incredibly expensive,” said Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), who chairs the far-right House Freedom Caucus, speaking with Semafor.
“The Democrats wrote the bill to expire in December … they could have written it to last forever. They didn’t. They wrote it to expire this year. So we should just let it expire.”
Other GOP lawmakers strongly opposed not funding ACA subsidies, especially in a moment of political turmoil for the administration, as Trump’s favorability among voters continues to plummet.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), referring to the idea of ceasing funding for ACA subsidies.
Others remained on the fence. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, told Semafor he hadn’t “taken a final position” on fully funding ACA subsidies.
“I know there’s opposition on some parts of the Republican side and a desire to transition them to a better system,” Crapo said. "It's an issue which clearly we need to deal with … there’s lots of different positions, from pure extension to pure elimination.”
Trump’s megabill is projected to slash Medicaid funding by around $1 trillion over ten years, and lead to as many as 16 million people losing coverage by 2034.