Wednesday, September 30, 2026 · 34 days to November 3

Yesterday the Senate voted 48 to 51 not to debate a resolution that would have blocked next year’s Affordable Care Act marketplace rule. The motion failed. The rule stays.

The measure was S.J.Res.197, Senate Roll Call 251, at 2:21 p.m. It would have disapproved the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rule on benefit and payment parameters for 2027, including the Basic Health Program, published May 20 in the Federal Register. This is not the January vote. That one, S.J.Res.84, targeted a different rule, Marketplace Integrity and Affordability, and it failed 47 to 52 on January 13.

Chris Coons and Lisa Blunt Rochester both voted yes, to let the Senate take up the disapproval. Susan Collins of Maine voted yes with them. Fifty-one senators voted no.

Delaware buys this coverage on HealthCare.gov. The state’s Insurance Commissioner said on December 29, 2025, that enhanced premium tax credits help about 42,000 Delawareans afford coverage. That is help paying the premium in the current market. It is not a dollar figure for what yesterday’s vote does to a 2027 bill. I will not invent one.

CMS says the 2027 rule drops the requirement that insurers on the federal platform offer standardized plans, allows catastrophic plans running as long as 10 years, and changes bronze-plan cost sharing starting in 2027. The Basic Health Program payment changes are about states that run one. Delaware is not in that group in CMS’s latest open-enrollment snapshot.

The longer letter is the place for the vote line by line. The short version is this: the chance to stop the 2027 rule failed by three votes.

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