The U.S. House passed a three-year extension of a tax credit that makes health insurance more affordable for people who buy coverage on the state marketplace.
The bill passed 230 to 196, picking up 17 Republican votes. All of Colorado’s Democrats voted for the extension bill, as did Republican Rep. Jeff Hurd, whose district is seeing some of the biggest premium increases.
Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert, Jeff Crank and Gabe Evans voted against the bill.
The bill now heads to the Senate, which has failed to advance a clean extension of the ACA enhanced premium tax credit in the past.
Hurd, who was on the fence going into the vote, said he ultimately voted yes to send a message to the Senate. He was part of a meeting earlier in the day when members of the House Problem Solvers Caucus sat down with Senators trying to negotiate a compromise bill in their chamber.
“In the end I thought we can’t make the perfect the enemy of the good. And we need to get something over to the Senate,” Hurd explained. He said the senators “conveyed to us that it would be important — an important message — from the House to send it if it had bipartisan support.”
He’s hoping the Senate attempts to change the bill, and that it succeeds. “Let’s get a reform package in there, get it back to the House and then let’s vote on it.”
Hurd has been the most vocal Republican in Colorado’s delegation supporting an extension of the credit, but with changes. He supported a different bill that extended the credit for a shorter amount of time and with income caps and guardrails against fraud and abuse.
The state’s only representative from a true swing district, Republican Gabe Evans, said in a statement that he’s “open to supporting a common-sense bill that puts necessary guardrails in place and gradually phases out these subsidies, but this is not it.”
More than 220,000 Coloradans were enrolled in the Connect for Health Colorado marketplace last year. The subsidy expired at the end of 2025 and without it premiums in some parts of the state have doubled or even tripled for enrollees.
Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette, who is the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce committee’s Health subcommittee, was “over the moon” with the outcome, noting that the extension bill has picked up steam.
“It’s a great signal to the Senate that they need to do this for the millions of Americans who are being impacted already by the increased insurance rates,” DeGette said. She added she is open to reforms if they “will actually reduce the cost of health care. I think that’s a great idea. And I think there’s things we can do like pharmacy benefit manager reform, for example.”
Passage of the bill, which circumvented Republican leadership through a discharge petition, puts pressure on the U.S. Senate to act.
A bipartisan group has been working in that chamber to reach a compromise which would include an income cap, last for two years and extend open enrollment. It follows bipartisan frameworks and bills that were introduced in the House.
One sticking point, however, has been the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal dollars from paying for abortions in most cases. The Affordable Care Act was passed incorporating a provision that applies Hyde to marketplace plans, only covering abortion in case of life of the mother, rape or incest. But Republicans are seeking further restrictions.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump told House Republicans to “be flexible” when it comes to Hyde. It’s a statement many House Republicans pushed back against.
A November poll found that nearly three out of four Coloradans support extending the credit.
The fight over extending the subsidies led to the longest government shutdown.
