While House Republicans excluded Obamacare bailouts in the omnibus package to fund the federal government, the Senate continues to consider whether to do so. The Heritage Foundation's Marie Fishpaw, Director of Domestic Policy Studies, offered the following reaction:

"Eight years ago this week, Obamacare was signed into law with Republican lawmakers vowing to repeal it. Yesterday, House lawmakers renewed that commitment by choosing not to embrace and expand Obamacare with new payments to health insurance companies.

The Senate should follow the House's example. As Heritage has pointed out, the proposed bailouts likely will not save the government money or lower premiums—despite what advocates claim.

Congress cannot fix Obamacare’s structural problems by throwing more taxpayer dollars at it. We look forward to working with lawmakers to fix these underlying problems through repeal and replace of Obamacare with commonsense reforms that would lower costs and improve choices.”