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ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Republicans in key battleground U.S. House districts are working to contain the political fallout that may come when thousands of their constituents face higher bills for health insurance coverage obtained through the Affordable Care Act.

For a critical sliver of the Republican majority, the impending expiration of what are called enhanced premium tax credits after Dec. 31 is a pressing concern as they potentially face headwinds in a 2026 midterm election that will be critical to President Donald Trump’s agenda.

One of those is first-term U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa., whose victory for the Allentown-area seat last year was among the narrowest in the nation.

Mackenzie is part of a bipartisan group that has been pressing for an eleventh-hour compromise, advocating for an extension of the tax credits that tries to fix perceived flaws and bring down health care costs. But the push is a long shot due to entrenched GOP opposition to the health overhaul known as “Obamacare.”

“I think that we need to deal with the reality of where we are now and even if you have a broken system, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t provide or offer relief to individuals who are dealing with those high costs right now,” Mackenzie said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Democrats have been laying the groundwork, starting with this fall’s shutdown fight, to make the health care issue a focus of next year’s campaigns.

The party’s strategy for capturing the House majority centers on pinning higher bills for groceries, health insurance and utilities on the policies of Trump and Republicans.

In Washington, Republicans from competitive House districts have authored or signed onto bills that would temporarily extend the tax credits. A new bipartisan proposal unveiled Thursday has drawn support from roughly 15 Republicans and 20 Democrats so far.

“I have 40,000 people in my district who rely on this health care and doing nothing to prevent a spike in their premiums is wrong,” said U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., a sponsor of the plan.

Thirteen Republicans — including Mackenzie — signed a letter in late October to the House speaker, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., encouraging the temporary extension of the tax credits, saying letting them “lapse without a clear path forward would risk real harm to those we represent.”

Johnson hasn’t committed to a short-term extension vote before Jan. 1 and has dismissed the looming premium increases as affecting a small percentage of Americans.

More than 24 million people have ACA health insurance, including farmers, business owners and other self-employed people who don’t have other health insurance options through their work.

Many benefit from subsidies that lower their out-of-pocket cost. Those subsidies include the enhanced premium tax credits, which were added and then extended under Democratic President Joe Biden when his party was the majority in Congress.

Some Republicans — including Mackenzie — couch their support for an extension with the caveat that changes must be made. One is rooting out insurance broker fraud. Another is backing off subsidies for higher earners.

U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley, one of the California Republicans whose districts have been redrawn to favor a Democrat, sponsored a bill to extend the tax credits for two years. His bill would also impose an income eligibility cap to exclude higher earners.

Kiley said the current system isn’t working, but there’s not enough time to make systematic reforms before millions of Americans “just suddenly pay double on their premiums.”

U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., also has a bill to temporarily extend the credit, and said letting the subsidy lapse will make it harder for Republicans to retain the majority next year.

“People say, ‘well, it’s not that many people,’” Van Drew said. “The kind of election we’re going to have in the midterms in multiple districts is going to be decided by one or two points. It’s going to be close. It’s going to be tight, and it does matter. It absolutely matters politically.”

U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, chair of the House Republicans’ campaign arm, said the tax credits won’t be “decisive” in next year’s election when other things are likely to be on voters’ minds.

But U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington state, who chairs the House Democrats’ campaign arm, said swing-district Republicans won’t be able to distance themselves from the expiration of the tax credits.

“The number one issue across the country is affordability and health care is a key part of that,” DelBene said.

The Congressional Budget Office projects that 3.8 million more people will be uninsured in 2035 if the tax credits aren’t extended. But the tax credits also come with a cost: Extending them would increase the deficit by $350 billion over the next decade.

The expiration of the tax credits means enrollees will see annual premiums more than double — from an average of $888 in 2025 to $1,904 in 2026, according to health care research nonprofit KFF. That’s an increase of 114%.

The size of the increases varies by state, age and income and will be more extreme in Mackenzie’s district, according to state data, which puts the average premium increase at 178%.

A primary field of Democrats is shaping up for the nomination to challenge Mackenzie. They say they’re hearing from people who are struggling to afford rising premiums.

One of those Democrats, Ryan Crosswell, said rising insurance costs are a “breaking of promises” by Trump, Republicans and Mackenzie. Another Democrat, Carol Obando-Derstine, called the impending expiration a “crisis of (Mackenzie’s) own making.”

Mackenzie says he’s made it clear repeatedly that he supports an extension, but that “I am not the speaker, I don’t set the calendar or the agenda. I’m not the leader, I can’t call up bills.”

In Mackenzie’s district, more than 20,000 people received the enhanced tax credits in 2025, according to state data. He won his race last year by 1 percentage point, or about 4,000 votes.

One of those 20,000 people in Mackenzie’s district is Patrick Visconti, who switched to a low-premium, high-deductible plan because he couldn’t afford to keep his plan with a premium that is more than doubling from under $200 to over $500 a month.

Visconti, 59, who works as a self-employed landscaper and a bus driver, said the plan he picked is “crappy coverage.”

“I’d rather pay the $200 a month. But I can’t get anything for $200,” Visconti said.

Lynn Weidner, a home care worker in Mackenzie’s district who works nearly 80 hours a week, said her $400 premium will increase to $680. But, she said, she’s leaning toward selecting the plan because she has various conditions — including an iron deficiency — that require regular medical care.

“So I’m trying to find places where I can cut money so that I can afford my insurance come January, which is stressful,” Weidner said.

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Freking reported from Washington. Follow Marc Levy on X at: https://x.com/timelywriter

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that a deal struck by Netflix to buy Warner Bros. Discovery “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined market share.

“There’s no question about it,” Trump said, answering questions about the deal and various other topics as he walked the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Honors.

The Republican president said he will be involved in the decision about whether the federal government should approve the $72 billion deal. If approved by regulators, the merger would put two of the world’s biggest streaming services under the same ownership and join Warner’s television and motion picture division, including DC Studios, with Netflix’s vast library and its production arm.

The deal, which could reshape the entertainment industry, has to “go through a process and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said.

“Netflix is a great company. They’ve done a phenomenal job. Ted is a fantastic man,” he said of Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, noting that they met in the Oval Office last week before the deal was announced Dec. 5. “I have a lot of respect for him but it’s a lot of market share, so we’ll have to see what happens.”

Asked if Netflix should be allowed to buy the Hollywood giant behind “Harry Potter” and HBO Max, the president said, “Well that’s the question.”

“They have a very big market share and when they have Warner Bros., you know, that share goes up a lot so, I don’t know,” he said. “I’ll be involved in that decision, too. But they have a very big market share”

Sarandos made no guarantees at their meeting about the merger if it is approved, Trump said, adding that the CEO is a “great person” who has “done one of the greatest jobs in the history of movies and other things.”

He repeated that a merger would create a “big market share” for the company.

“There’s no question about it. It could be a problem,” Trump said.

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Associated Press writer John Carucci contributed to this report.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Changes that Disney made to a popular program that lets qualifying disabled people skip long lines at its California and Florida theme parks are too restrictive, disabled fans contend in a federal lawsuit and shareholder proposal that seek to expand eligibility.

The battle over who can skip long lines on popular rides because of their disabilities marks the latest struggle by Disney to accommodate disabled visitors while cracking down on past abuses. But some Disney fans say the company has gone too far and has no right to determine who is disabled.

“This isn’t right. This isn’t what Walt and Roy would have wanted,” said Shannon Bonadurer, referring to the Disney brothers who founded the entertainment empire. Despite being unable to wait for long periods of time in the heat because she uses an ileostomy bag, Bonadurer was denied a pass for the disability program.

In a statement, Disney said it was committed to providing a great experience to all visitors, particularly those with disabilities who may require special accommodations.

Here’s a look at changes to Disney parks’ policies for disabled visitors.

The Disability Access Service, or DAS, program allows pass-holders and their immediate family members to make an online reservation for a ride while in the park and then get into an expedited line that typically takes about 10 minutes when it’s their time to go on the ride. DAS guests never have to wait in normal standby lines, which on the most popular attractions can be two hours or more.

The DAS program started in 2013 in response to past abuses by disabled “tour guides” who charged money, sometimes hundreds of dollars, to accompany able-bodied guests, enabling such guests to go to the front of lines. Disney says the DAS program needed changing because it had grown fourfold. Before last year’s changes, the percentage of guests having DAS passes jumped from around 5% to 20% over the past dozen years “and showed no signs of slowing,” the company said in court papers.

Disney parks make other accommodations for disabled visitors, including maps in Braille, a device that helps transfer visitors from wheelchairs to ride seats, quiet break locations and American Sign Language interpreters for some live shows. The parks permit some service animals on rides and allow some disabled guests to leave a line and rejoin their party before boarding a ride.

Disney narrowed the scope from people with a wider range of disabilities to mostly guests who “due to a developmental disability such as autism or similar” have difficulties waiting in a long line. Under the changes, guests seeking a DAS pass must be interviewed via video chat by a Disney worker and a contracted medical professional who determine if the person is eligible. Visitors found to have lied can be barred from the parks.

Some people with disabilities who have been denied say the new policy is too restrictive. Not only was Bonadurer denied a pass, but so was her 25-year-old son, who is blind and has cerebral palsy and autism.

“They are making a determination about whether you’re disabled enough,” said Bonadurer, a professional travel adviser from Michigan. “I would love to wait in line with everyone else, and so would my son, since that would mean he has a normal life. But we don’t, and unfortunately for us, we need adaptations to how we wait.”

Disney says the Americans with Disabilities Act doesn’t require equal treatment of people with varying disabilities. The company accommodates those visitors who don’t meet the new DAS criteria with alternatives, Disney said in court filings responding to a federal lawsuit in California.

“For example, in a crowded movie theater, a person using a wheelchair may be entitled to priority seating even if they arrive shortly before the movie starts, while a deaf person may only be entitled to a seat with closed captioning,” the company said.

At Disney’s main theme park rival, Universal, disabled visitors can get shorter lines if they have a card issued by an international board that certifies venues for their accessibility.

A shareholder proposal submitted on behalf of DAS Defenders, an advocacy group of Disney fans opposed to the DAS changes, calls on the company next year to commission an independent review of its disability policies and publicly release the findings. The shareholder proposal claims the change to the DAS program has contributed to lower park attendance.

Disney’s attorneys told the Securities and Exchange Commission in a November letter that it intends to block the proposal ahead of the company’s 2026 shareholder meeting, saying it was false and misleading about the reasons for an attendance decline, which the company attributed to hurricanes. The company also argued the shareholder proposal amounts to micromanaging day-to-day operations.

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Follow Mike Schneider on Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social