BREAKING: Republicans break with party to pass ACA clean bill! Republican leadership tried to block a clean ACA bill… and their own moderates joined Democrats anyway. When healthcare costs are on the line, party loyalty suddenly isn’t…

A growing chunk of Republicans in both the House and Senate are breaking with party leaders and saying the GOP should extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies, seeing that as the only way to avert big cost increases for millions of households next year and buy time for a bigger overhaul.

Republicans have fought for years to stop or curtail the 2010 health law, casting it as a failed program that props up big health insurers and fuels cost increases. But with enhanced ACA subsidies set to lapse next year, some Republicans across the political spectrum say they are willing to back a short-term extension.

“I’d be open to doing it in the short-term until we fix the overall problem,” said Rep. Ronny Jackson (R., Texas), President Trump’s former White House physician. “I’d be willing to do it to bridge a gap.”

Already, some GOP lawmakers have sponsored or signed onto bills that would extend the tax credits for one or more years, while including changes designed to crack down on fraud and limit eligibility to exclude higher-income households. They include Sens. Susan Collins (R., Maine), Jon Husted (R., Ohio) and Roger Marshall (R., Kan.)—all of whom are up for election next year—and vulnerable House Republicans like Reps. Rob Bresnahan (R., Pa.) and Mike Lawler (R., N.Y.).

The Senate plans two healthcare votes Thursday: one on a GOP bill that would put as much as $1,500 a year into health savings accounts in lieu of providing subsidies to cover premiums, and the second on a Democratic plan that extends ACA subsidies for three years. Neither is expected to reach the 60 votes needed to advance, but the willingness of some Republicans to consider any form of ACA extensions has opened the door to possible talks if the partisan measures fail.

In the House, Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) said Republicans plan to put on the floor next week a package of healthcare proposals that doesn’t include extending subsidies. But other lawmakers see an ACA extension as the only way to prevent widespread pain ahead of the 2026 midterms and get a GOP-led Congress in position to make more sweeping changes.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio)—a onetime leader of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus—argued in a closed-door House Republican meeting that the party needed its own plan to temporarily extend the subsidies in tandem with more sweeping changes. If they didn’t, he warned, conservatives could be sidelined by centrists’ push to bring their own ACA extension to the floor.

“There’s a whole list of good things that we need to put in the legislation,” Jordan said in an interview. “But we also need to recognize reality, which is the cliff is coming in 21 days, and we have members who are very concerned about that. I think we all are.”