Bipartisan lawmakers unveil Obamacare extension as pressure grows on Johnson for play call

By Fox News · Fox News

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers has introduced legislation aimed at keeping COVID-19 pandemic-era Obamacare subsidies alive for another two years. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., co-chairs of the Problem Solvers Caucus, have told reporters for weeks that they are working on such a measure as Capitol Hill scrambles to avert skyrocketing health insurance costs for millions of Americans beginning next year. Democrats in Congress voted twice during the pandemic to expand the availability of premium tax credits for Obamacare, also called the Affordable Care Act (ACA), to make sure more Americans had access to healthcare coverage. Those enhanced subsidies are set to expire at the end of this year. BIPARTISAN DEAL ON OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES FADES AS REPUBLICANS PUSH HSA PLAN A majority of House Republicans have signaled they are not open to extending them, at least not without significant reforms. Conservatives in particular have panned the enhanced subsidies as a COVID-era relic that benefited insurance companies rather than Americans themselves. But some GOP lawmakers have joined Democrats in warning that failing to extend them at least temporarily at this point will result in millions of Americans seeing their healthcare premiums skyrocket while Congress does nothing to help. House Republicans are now largely looking to Speaker Mike Johnson , R-La., and their leaders for the next move. Johnson has said he intends to hold a vote on some kind of healthcare package before the end of this year, while panning Obamacare as a long-broken system badly in need of reforms. HOUSE GOP SPLITS OVER OBAMACARE FIX AS COSTS POISED TO SPIKE FOR MILLIONS One House GOP source told Fox News Digital that they expect Johnson to lay out a roadmap on healthcare at Republican lawmakers' weekly conference meeting on Wednesday morning. The bipartisan bill released Tuesday is being pushed by a group of four Democrats and three Republicans — Fitzpatrick, Suozzi, along with…