As of November 1?
Obamacare/ Affordable Care Act covered Americans ARE gonna get INCREASES in their health insurance premiums …
Those increases ARE from Republicans in Congress….
Those same Republicans CAN erase the increases….
Will They?
Pressure on Congress to renew Affordable Care Act subsidies is likely to ramp up this fall as notices of 2026 premium increases go out and consumers get their first warnings that huge rate hikes could be coming.
Why it matters: Backers of renewing the enhanced tax credits, which expire at the end of this year, hope the sticker shock could motivate Republicans to get behind a short-term reauthorization to avoid an uproar over premium increases in an election year.
What they’re saying: “This is going to rain starting in October; people are going to start getting these notices,” said Leslie Dach, chair of the Democratic-aligned group Protect Our Care. “And it comes right to your doorstep, right to your mailbox.”
- Republicans in Congress, he said, are not “going to do anything until they see the light of their constituents’ eyes here … so the most important thing is to be sure people know what’s going on.”
The big picture: Out-of-pocket premium costs for over 20 million enrollees in the ACA marketplaces will increase by an average of 75% if the enhanced subsidies expire at the end of this year, according to KFF. Congressional scorekeepers also project 4.2 million more people would become uninsured over a decade.
- That puts Republicans in a bind heading into the midterm elections: stuck between resisting an expansion of the ACA and the fear of steep health cost increases for their constituents.
- Although some GOP lawmakers are open to a deal on an extension, there’s substantial concern over the projected $335 billion cost over 10 years — and the often-expressed sentiment that the subsidies are a handout to insurance companies…..
I’ve been waiting for years now for that Republican “ health care plan” which we were promised as an alternative to Obamacare years ago.
The ‘Plan’ IS simple.…..
“THERE IS NO PLAN’!
The alternative “better” plans that the GOP came up with in 2009-10 were so unpopular, inequitable or impractical that none of them was passed (or in some cases even presented for passage).