'Blatant Extortion': Healthcare for Millions Hangs in the Balance as GOP Plows Toward Shutdown

As the White House threatens mass layoffs of federal workers in the event of a looming GOP government shutdown, healthcare and consumer advocates warned Friday that millions of Americans would either lose insurance coverage or see their premiums spike—and some critics say that's exactly what Republicans want.

On Wednesday, the White House Office of Management and Budget directed federal agencies to prepare to fire large numbers of employees if the government shuts down on October 1, a move that critics say OMB Director Russ Vought is using as leverage to force the hand of Senate Democrats who last week blocked advancement of a stopgap spending measure passed in the House.

Democrats are seeking to negotiate bipartisan legislation that includes an extension of subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obamacare, which are set to expire at the end of the year. Legislation introduced earlier this month by House and Senate Democratic leaders offered a short-term fix for keeping the government running while permanently extending ACA subsidies, reversing Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by Trump on July 4, lifting the freeze on foreign aid, and restoring funding for public broadcasting.

"The president and Republican congressional leaders are doing nothing to address a looming, massive healthcare cost spike for more than 20 million people," Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), said in a statement Friday. According to CBPP, that' roughly the number of Americans who will be affected if the ACA's premium tax credits are allowed to expire at the end of this year, which they will absent congressional action.

"This is how dictators and comic book archvillains behave."

Taking aim at the measure proposed by GOP lawmakers that would keep the government running through November 21, Parrot—who decried the mass firing threat as "blatant extortion"—said that "Republicans are claiming their short-term continuing resolution is business as usual, but nothing about this moment is normal."

Lawmakers introduced two dueling continuing resolutions earlier this month; both measures failed to pass. Congress must pass any continuing resolution by October 1, the start of the new fiscal year, to prevent a shutdown.

“The Trump administration is threatening to inflict massive harm on all of us unless Democrats in Congress surrender in the funding fight," said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. "A temporary lapse in funding does not provide grounds for an agency to fire federal workers indiscriminately—and really, this is just a threat to harm the public if Republicans don’t get their way."

“This whole saga demonstrates exactly who is to blame for a shutdown: Trump and Republicans in Congress," Gilbert added. "Instead of negotiating a funding deal in good faith like every White House and Congress in history has managed to do, Trump and Republicans are threatening the American people with ruin if they don’t get their way."

"This is how dictators and comic book archvillains behave," she said. "Congress must not back down in the face of this reprehensible and un-American threat against all of us.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) faced intense criticism in March for leading a small group of Democrats who helped end the last such standoff. At the time, he warned that a shutdown would be a "gift" allowing Republicans "to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now.”

The evisceration of federal agencies—as pursued by the Trump administration and its so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—is a main objective of the far-right blueprint for a government overhaul known as Project 2025, whose executive policy section was authored by Vought.

Parrott noted that this time around, Republicans "have so far refused bipartisan negotiations to prevent families across the country already struggling to afford healthcare and other basics from taking this hit. Indeed, they have rejected bipartisan discussions on anything related to year-end spending bills, even as they need bipartisan support in the Senate to pass short- or long-term funding bills."

"Congressional Republicans and the president need to come to the table with Democrats to reach a deal that prevents healthcare cost spikes for millions of people and ensures the administration can’t unilaterally or illegally undo parts of bipartisan funding laws simply because the president dislikes them," Parrott added.

New polling published Wednesday by Impact Research shows that 72% of respondents want Congress to extend the healthcare tax credits, with 44% calling the issue "very important." More than half of those polled said that lowering the cost of monthly health insurance premiums would provide the biggest relief to their monthly expenses.

“This latest polling clearly shows that Americans are demanding lower costs and affordable healthcare, yet Republicans in Congress continue to ignore them in favor of millionaires and billionaires,” Unrig Our Economy campaign director Leor Tal said in a statement.

“Congressional Republicans would rather risk a government shutdown than reverse course and preserve healthcare tax credits millions rely on," Tal added. "We need our leaders to focus on lowering healthcare costs, not enriching the ultrawealthy.”