GOP pressure is mounting on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to extend expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits, as a number of rank-and-file Republicans push leaders to prevent the popular subsidies from expiring at the end of the year.

Eleven GOP lawmakers have endorsed legislation extending the benefits for an additional year, punting the issue beyond the midterm elections. Most of them are vulnerable front-liners facing tough reelection contests — and wary of the spike in health costs expected to hit patients if Congress doesn’t act.

The issue is a tricky one for Republicans, who had opposed the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as ObamaCare, unanimously in 2010, and united again against the two Biden-era laws that first created, and then extended, the enhanced tax credits for patients during the pandemic.

But with those credits scheduled to expire at the year’s end — and millions of patients facing skyrocketing health care premiums as a result — even Republican ObamaCare critics are racing to shore up the benefits before then, forcing GOP leaders to confront the topic.

With a dwindling number of legislative vehicles remaining this year, some lawmakers want to tackle the credits as part of this month’s government funding package — a strategy Johnson did not rule out this week.

Johnson acknowledged to reporters Monday that “there’s thoughtful conversations about all of it” when asked whether a fix would be taken care of as part of an eventual funding stopgap to prevent a shutdown.

“I’m not going to forecast that right now,” Johnson told reporters, while also saying, “There’s a lot of........

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