Senate Dems' Obamacare fix fails as Senate looks for off-ramp from healthcare cliff

By Fox News · Fox News

Senate Republicans rallied to block Senate Democrats’ extension of expiring Obamacare subsidies as both sides of the aisle suffer defeats on their proposals to deal with the looming healthcare cliff. Over the course of the 43-day government shutdown, Senate Democrats made the longest closure in history all about the subsidies, which were passed and enhanced under former President Joe Biden . They argued that if Congress didn’t act, Americans who rely on the subsidies would be hit with skyrocketing premiums. Their plan, however, was one that was never going to pass muster with the majority of Senate Republicans, who demanded myriad reforms to the program that they charged was rife with fraud. DUELING OBAMACARE PLANS SET TO FAIL AS DEADLINE NEARS, PUSHING SENATE TOWARD BIPARTISAN TALKS Only Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Josh Hawley , R-Mo., split from their party to support Democrats' plan on an otherwise party line vote on Thursday, leaving the upper chamber without a solution to the fast-approaching deadline to either extend or replace the subsidies. Still, both sides of the aisle want to tackle rising healthcare costs, they just can’t agree on the best solution. "We don't need to come up with the perfect plan," Hawley told Fox News Digital before the vote. "We need to say what will help right now to lower healthcare costs? That's a more achievable goal, and that's doable, so I am willing to vote for just about anything that has a legitimate shot at lowering healthcare costs right now. So that's where I'd start." Senate Democrats’ plan, in comparison with Republicans’ offering that was blocked minutes before, was a straightforward three-year extension of the expiring enhanced subsidies. GOP ACCUSES DEMOCRATS OF MANUFACTURING AFFORDABILITY CRISIS AS OBAMACARE SUBSIDY FIGHT NEARS DEADLINE But the plan did not include several reforms Republicans demanded, like measures to prevent fraud, income caps and more stringe…