Failure to extend ACA tax credits in government funding package leaves millions in limbo, experts say

The cost of health care remains in limbo for roughly 22 million Americans after the U.S. government reopened late Wednesday without a deal to extend an expiring federal tax credit that offsets the cost of some Affordable Care Act plans.

The fate of the enhanced premium tax credit had been at the center of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history as Democrats pushed Republicans to extend the subsidy in order to reopen the government.

Seven Democratic senators and one independent who caucuses with Democrats voted late Sunday with Republican senators to end the shutdown without resolving the future of the tax credit.

On Wednesday, the House passed a funding package — also without an extension of the tax credits — to end the 43-day shutdown in a 222 to 209 vote. Six Democ