GOP’s Shutdown Win Tees Up Health Care as Pivotal Midterm Issue

Republicans, fresh off their US government shutdown victory, now face the task of sorting a health-care mess that risks upending the balance of power in President Donald Trump’s Washington.

The moves by GOP leaders to resist Democrats’ demands to protect expiring subsidies for Obamacare as the price for reopening federal agencies will save the government billions of dollars and weaken a program the party has tried repeatedly to kill.

But with millions of Americans now facing a spike in health care premium costs at the start of next year, the issue could quickly become a drag on Republicans in ...