States Taking Action To Mitigate Soaring Health Insurance Costs

 

Democrats in a dozen states are working hard (while Republicans are hardly working) to mitigate the steep rise in health insurance costs starting on January 1, due to Republicans' determination to end Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) subsidies:

At least a dozen states are working to shield people from soaring health insurance costs following Congress’ failure to extend Obamacare subsidies for tens of millions of Americans.

The efforts, which include actions taken by state leaders in California, Colorado and Maryland, in nearly every case come with a major caveat: They will only be able to help a portion of the people whose health insurance will be too expensive without the enhanced subsidies that Congress opted not to renew before leaving Washington for the year.

“We can carry the cost for a little bit, but at some point, we will need Congress to act,” said Javier Martínez, speaker of the House in New Mexico, the only state so far to cover all lapsed subsidies. “No state can withstand to plug in every single budget hole that the Trump administration leaves behind.”

The speed at which the mostly Democratic states have taken action underscores the mounting national anxiety about the medical and political impact the end of these subsidies will have. Millions of Americans will no longer be able to afford health insurance, straining the budgets of state welfare programs and hospitals that are already in the red, and threatening to erode access to care to a level not seen in years.

Responses have so far been uneven, reflecting political and economic realities across the country. Georgia and Washington, for instance, are not likely to cover the subsidies, though for very different reasons. Other states, like Connecticut and New Mexico, have already acted, allocating money in sessions earlier this year in preparation for the possibility, and may add more in the upcoming year.

California, predicting that the GOP-led Congress would allow the subsidies to lapse, was one of the first to experiment with ways to protect people from rising monthly premiums. The Golden State is allocating nearly $200 million to replace the expired federal subsidies for roughly 300,000 of its poorest residents, but the rest of the state’s 2 million residents enrolled on the Obamacare exchange could be hit hard...

In some states, one problem, other than Republican sociopathy, is lack of funding, but in others, there's a concern that the Trump regime and its toadies in Congress are trying to take the pressure off them by forcing states to make their own subsidy programs.  We're not convinced the monsters in the regime have the bandwidth to engage that much strategic thinking;  rather they likely just want to rip the bandage off regardless of the pain endured, just to end a hated popular program named after a hated popular president.  It's one piece in the Republicans' "Project 2025" social Darwinist blueprint to strip  the poorest and most vulnerable people of their affordable health insurance.

It's important that Democrats at least make the effort, even if it's short term or turns out to be futile, in order to keep as many people from dying because they can't afford health insurance (ironically many in rural and red states).  That's the simple truth.

(Photo: Kevin Lamarque / Reuters)