Sen. Roger Marshall hopes that his Obamacare fix will get the green light from Senate Republicans and believes that it could be a starting point for a bipartisan solution down the road. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
That approach, in broad terms, bridges the gap between Senate Democrats’ desire to extend the subsidies and the GOP’s wishes to pivot the subsidy money into HSAs, which has the backing of President Donald Trump.
"We want to turn patients into consumers again. That's the whole key here: My plan doesn't impact just the 24 million people on Obamacare. It's going to impact everybody's cost of health care," Marshall said. "So if we pair bumping up savings accounts with price tags, we're going to turn patients into consumers again, and they'll do magic things out there. I think of this being like the magic shopping weeks, Black Friday and Cyber Monday."
Along with extending the enhanced subsidies and transitioning them to HSAs, Marshall’s plan would also eliminate zero-cost premiums by requiring a minimum payment of $5 per month, require people to provide a government-issued ID in a bid to eliminate fraud, and include stricter enforcement of Hyde Amendment requirements that taxpayer dollars don’t fund abortions by denying the premium credits from being used on abortion procedures.
Abortion funding has proven a tricky situation in ongoing bipartisan talks, a point Marshall acknowledged but countered that he couldn’t understand "why by just stating what the law is and making it even clearer," Democrats object to it.
SENATE DEMOCRATS PUSH OBAMACARE SUBSIDY VOTE 'DESIGNED TO FAIL' AS REPUBLICANS CALL PLAN UNSERIOUS
President Donald Trump during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, Dec. 2, 2025. (Yuri Gripas/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
He noted that bipartisan talks had picked up recently, but that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was proving to be a major roadblock.
"I think the talks are increasing, and they're getting better, but there's a political reality to this as well," Marshall said. "I don't think Chuck Schumer wants us to be successful. He doesn't want us to fix Obamacare. He wants this country to be in chaos come November of next year."
It’s also one of several Republican plans in the mix, with others either focusing only on abandoning the enhanced subsidies for HSAs or extending the subsidies for two years.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
And time is running out for Republicans to present their plan to counter Senate Democrats’ proposal, with a vote on the subsidies set for Thursday. That could be a tall task for Republicans, Marshall said.
"I think it'll be really hard to have enough momentum to get something that's going to allow the enhanced premiums to continue," he said. "I want to emphasize, though the original Obamacare is still in place, and it's going to cover over 80% of people's premiums as is. I think we need to do more than just stop the hemorrhaging. Our bill stops the hemorrhaging."
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-senator-pitches-black-friday-obamacare-fix-bridges-democrat-republican-demands