Affordable Care Act subsidies that help millions of Americans pay for health insurance will expire in less than a month. But razor-thin margins in Congress, partisan division and competing plans are making it less and less likely that lawmakers will find a bipartisan deal to keep the assistance going, which means some households will probably face spiking insurance costs next year.

Senate Republicans promised Democrats a mid-December vote on a plan of their choice to extend the subsidies, implemented in 2021 to lower health care costs during the covid-19 pandemic, in exchange for support from a group of Democrats to end the government shutdown.

Around 24 million Americans use the federal marketplace to buy insurance. Most of those people now qualify for the subsidies, and the average ben

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