Top row: Ohio Republican Reps. Max Miller, Dave Joyce and Mike Carey. Bottom row: Ohio Democratic Reps. Emilia Sykes, Marcy Kaptur, Greg Landsman, Shontel Brown and Joyce Beatty. (Graphic by Morgan Trau, WEWS from official congressional photos.)
With all five of Ohio’s Democratic U.S. representatives supporting a bill to restore expired Affordable Care Act subsidies, three of Ohio’s 10 GOP representatives last week defied President Donald Trump and voted with Democrats to restore them.
The clock is ticking for Congress to address rising health care costs, as insurance premiums are already rising for some Ohioans on ACA or Obamacare plans.
Despite Democrats fighting over subsidies, which led to government shutdown in the fall, Congress allowed them to expire at the end of 2025.
But on Thursday night, a group of Republicans broke with Trump and helped pass a Democratic bill that would restore the tax breaks for three years.
“I have been telling House leaders that we need to address this because it will be a problem, but they have refused to address it,” said U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce, OH-14.
Joyce, of Geauga County, was one of seventeen Republicans nationwide to join Democrats. He said it wasn’t his ideal plan, but he wanted to aid provide stability.
“All we’re doing is pushing a broken system a little longer, but we can’t punish people at home just because people in Washington can’t make a decision and solve the problem,” Joyce said.
Republican U.S. Reps. Max Miller, OH-7, and Mike Carey, OH-15, also broke ranks.
“The partisan Obamacare system as it stands today has raised costs for everyone, but I want to give Ohioans certainty by working to address the higher costs Americans are bearing as a result of failed policies of the past,” Carey, who represents parts of the Columbus suburbs, said in a statement.
Miller, of Cleveland’s western suburbs, helped bring the bill to the floor. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson refused to bring the bill to a vote, but Miller signed a Democratic discharge petition before voting for the bill.
“Obamacare failed, but pulling the rug out from under an Ohio family without an alternative would be irresponsible,” Miller, who was traveling and unavailable for an interview, said in the X thread.
However, U.S. Rep. Bob Latta, OH-5, and the other six Ohio Republicans stuck to the party line and voted against extending the benefit.
He was traveling on Friday, but not before telling us he knows the system needs to change but said what Democrats want is too costly.
“They want $1.5 trillion, and now they say the federal debt will go up to $38 trillion,” Latta, who represents most of northwest Ohio as well as Lorain County, said in November.
We contacted every Republican representative; many were busy, but U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan’s team, OH-4, uploaded an interview he did with Newsmax. In it, he stated that he believed it was a bad deal and made no financial sense.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes, OH-13, was grateful to her colleagues for their support.
“A majority of Ohio’s delegation in the House voted for this decision, and I hope this will help our senators support this decision as well, but this is just the first step,” said Sykes, of Akron.
We also contacted Democratic representatives. U.S. Reps. Joyce Beatty, OH-3; Shontel Brown, OH-11; and Marcy Kaptur, OH-9, applauded the vote.
“I hope that with my vote, assuming the Senate passes something, the lives of half a million people will be less burdened by concerns about the cost of health insurance,” said Kaptur, of northwest Ohio.
The bill now goes to the Senate, where Republicans were more opposed to it.
Republican Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio’s team told us he is “still willing to consider any good faith negotiations that include cracking down on fraud in the system that wastes taxpayer dollars.”
Joyce told us that Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican who did not respond to a request for comment, is working on an agreement.
Kaptur said the GOP is “better not” to force a government shutdown if it can’t come up with an acceptable plan, but she hopes an agreement can be reached.
“I’m looking for senators who really care about the country… Don’t delay this any longer,” she said. “It was too disturbing for the people hanging in the balance.”
He also worries about his three Republican colleagues who helped pass the bill.
Joyce was asked whether it would be worth breaking with the president if the plan did not advance to the U.S. Senate.
“I proudly represent the residents of the 14th District and will continue to do so,” Joyce said. “And the people of Northeast Ohio know I support them.”
What about GOP leadership?
“I don’t work for leadership, they didn’t hire me for that position,” Joyce said. “The people of the 14th District put me here and I represent them and I will continue to do so to the best of my God-given ability until they stop telling me no more.”
When asked about his reaction, the representative replied that he had to vote the way he did.
“It’s true… It’s a big problem and they didn’t want to address it,” Joyce said of the House leadership. “And if that’s what it takes for them to finally dip their heads in the water and realize, ‘We have a problem here,’ then I’m glad I did it.”
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This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and are published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication on other news outlets because it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.
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