News - December 16, 2025 - by Ray Hagar

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The nation is facing a health-insurance crisis, as premiums are set to go up exponentially at the start of the New Year.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson released a 100-page proposal late Friday, in an 11th-hour bid to offer a solution. More that 22 million Americans are facing sharp increases in insurance premiums purchased through the Affordable Care Act because ACA enhanced tax credits will expire at the end of the month.

The Republican-controlled U.S. House will move quickly on the bill, Nevada's 2nd U.S. House District Rep. Mark Amodei said on Nevada Newsmakers. The GOP plan, however, does not include extensions for the tax credits.

"We're going to be voting on it before Christmas," Amodei told host Sam Shad in an interview last week.

"There's three committees in the House that are working on it now," he added.

When asked if the entire U.S. Congress will be working on the heath-care bill through the holidays, Amodei said:

"Well, that means the Senate ... But I can tell you the House will vote on the bill on the floor before Christmas."

Last week, the U.S. Senate failed to pass a Republican healthcare plan and a Democratic proposal to extend the tax credits for three years.

Congress, as a whole, should have hit near-panic mode much sooner than it has on the health-insurance crisis, said Amodei, Nevada's District 2 representative since 2011.

"What everybody's guilty of is, it (health-insurance crisis) should have been higher up on the radar screen," Amodei said. "And now it's pretty high up on the radar screen."

The Trump Administration's One Big Beautiful Bill, passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump on July 4, slashed the ACA tax credits after 2025, leading to the current crisis.

"In (less than) 30 days, people's bills are going up dramatically, at 50 percent or 30 percent," Amodei said. "I mean, what the heck? A 15 percent (increase) is dramatic. Thirty percent is un-doable."

He called for an overhaul of the heath-insurance system using the home-spun language of much of his district.

"Like, hey, this dog ain't hunting," Amodei said. "We got to get a new dog. I mean, nobody wants expensive health care."

Amodei, whose Nevada Newsmakers interview came four days before Johnson unveiled the GOP plan, was critical of the insurance industry, which has a powerful Washington D.C. lobby.

"Oh, but insurance companies are as profitable as they have ever been," he said.

When asked if the health-insurance crisis could result in members of Congress losing their next election, Amodei said, "That's a possibility."

"But here's the thing: If you just do what the Democrats say (extending the tax credits), it (cost of insurance) is still going to go up 14 percent or 15 percent. That's the information I've got."

He also mentioned a pet peeve of his that's tucked away in the ACA.

"Six-hundred thousand dollars ($600,000). That's how much households can make and still receive a subsidy," he said.

A family can earn a subsidy with that amount of income because the Inflation Reduction Act temporarily removed the cap in post-Covid times, according to reports.

"That stops on January One," Amodei said.

Amodei added the federal government spends $350 billion annually on the ACA tax credits.

KFF, a leading health-care policy organization, reported that tax subsidies for employer sponsored insurance coverage (ESI) and a portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits together totaled $398 billion in FY 2024.

"You're talking to a guy who was born in 1958," Amodei said. "I say that to say this: If that's what it takes to get health care reform, (that) you need to fire everybody, OK by me."

Amodei doubled-down on his call for an overhaul:

"We want to clean house on the whole thing because the Affordable Care Act was passed 14 years ago or whatever and you have it and it isn't working. It's like, what the heck? I'm happy to stand up there and say, 'Listen, I voted against it every chance I had.' "

Although highly-critical of the ACA, or "Obamacare," Amodei credits Democrats for tackling a major problem for Americans that Congress has failed to solve.

"Listen, I give credit to the Democrats for this. It's because Congress isn't famous for grabbing the bull by the horns unless they have to, Social Security, stuff like that," he said.

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