Told ya so…..
While the Republican US House Speaker plays hardball with Democrats on the Govt. Shutdown and keeping the Obamacare subsidies reasonable?
Healthcare premiums for those in the program, IN RED STATES, are beginning to see premium prices increase in the double digits…
I have posted this several time’s here….
Republicans in the US House are NOT doing THEMSELVES mush of a favor….
And MOST ACROSS the country ARE Blaming them….
NOT Democrats….
The state’s demographics help explain its high demand for Obamacare: Florida is full of low-wage service and gig workers who cannot get insurance through their jobs, self-employed people and early retirees who are not yet eligible for Medicare.
It is also one of only 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for low-income people, as allowed under the Affordable Care Act.
Obamacare established government marketplaces where people can buy private insurance using federal subsidies to help keep prices affordable. Enrollment in Obamacare plans soared nationally during the pandemic, when Congress increased the subsidies, in the form of tax credits, that help most people with the coverage pay their premiums. But the extra subsidies are set to expire on Dec. 31. A partisan standoff over whether and when to extend them is the main reason for the ongoing government shutdown.
In Florida, the uncertainty has resulted in a political throwback of sorts. Suddenly, the state’s politicians are talking about the Affordable Care Act again, often in urgent terms, 15 years after President Barack Obama signed it into law and several election cycles after it faded as a campaign issue.
Florida politics have changed so much in that time that the former presidential battleground state is no longer considered competitive. Miami-Dade County — ground zero for Obamacare, with more than 30 percent of residents on such plans — now votes Republican, as does the state overall.
Democrats from Miami to Orlando have spent weeks sounding alarms about the expiring subsidies. Open enrollment for 2026 plans is supposed to begin on Nov. 1, and insurers have started to notify enrollees that big premium increases are coming.
The biggest impact would be felt by older people at the lower edge of the middle class. Many people in their early 60s who earn around $65,000, for example, would experience a sharp increase in premiums — from a few hundred dollars a month to $1,000 or more….
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“I’ve changed the way I look at Obamacare,” said Ms. Barlow, who pays about $190 a month for her plan with the subsidies. “Before, I didn’t think it was going to be this pivotal in my life, this tool. But now, I will definitely feel the loss of it.”
She has started looking up clinics that offer sliding-scale prices and talked to her doctor about whether she might be able to drop any of her medications. She has also wondered whether she will have to take an office job outside of her field to afford insurance.
“I understand that people aren’t always happy about that tax break,” she said of the subsidies, “but in the big picture, I think in the U.S. tax code we have so many tax breaks for so many different things. Why shouldn’t health care be up there as a priority?”….
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