When, as expected, Republicans end Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") tax credits at the end of this month, it won't just disastrously affect the roughly 24 million Americans enrolled in the ACA, it's going to be an "invisible tax" for everyone with health insurance. So why are MAGAt Republicans and their cult leader doing this (aside from their sociopathy)? Well, read on:
Top healthcare executive John Driscoll calls the looming expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies “a tragedy in the making,” warning that millions of Americans are about to be hit with higher premiums, lost coverage, and rising medical debt as Washington gridlock hardens.
Driscoll, who is currently the chairman of UConn Health after a 25-year career in health care including a previous position as Walgreens Boots Alliance president, said the policy reversal amounts to “a self‑inflicted wound” that will push costs up for both low‑income families and the affluent professionals who thought they were insulated.
Driscoll cited CBO estimates that if Congress allows the subsidies to lapse, premiums will jump for roughly 24 million marketplace enrollees, and around 2 million people will lose coverage entirely in the near term.“You don’t solve higher health care costs with fewer people getting insured,” he told Fortune, arguing that the system will simply reprice risk and shift costs onto everyone else. “Whenever you reduce coverage at the bottom, everybody pays more in the middle.”Enhanced premium tax credits, introduced during the pandemic and extended through 2025, have helped double marketplace enrollment and kept average subsidized premiums under about $900 a year. When they expire, KFF News projects a roughly 114% increase in average premium payments for subsidized enrollees in 2026. Older adults and rural residents would be especially exposed, with KFF also warning that adults ages 50 to 64 could see average premium hikes of 75% or more.
Driscoll argued that the real story is a giant cost shift from government to households and employers, driven by simultaneous Medicaid cuts, work requirements, and subsidy rollbacks. When people lose coverage, he notes, they “don’t stop getting covered by the health care system.” Instead, they show up later and sicker, so hospitals and insurers respond by raising prices to anticipate uncompensated care.
When you consider that this is being done to “effectively subsidize a tax deduction for millionaires and billionaires, that’s going to shift health care costs to all of us when people lose coverage,” he added, referring to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that extended President Donald Trump’s previous tax cuts and introduced new ones... (our emphasis)
The other heinous element in this is that the rotted out Republican Party cannot stand to have the Democratic Party get credit for helping Americans get affordable health insurance (or credit for any other positive improvement in their daily life, thanks to competent governance -- think Medicare, Social Security, minimum wage, etc.). But apparently the cultists are willing to commit political suicide in order to achieve a pyrrhic victory over the hated Democrats and the affordable health care named after a popular Democratic president.
According to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, half of Republicans and 76% of independents want the tax credits extended. (click to enlarge):
KFF's Larry Levitt tells us a basic difference between the Democrats' ACA extension bill and the Republicans' establishing "health savings accounts" is who would be better off under each:
“There are a small number of people who would be better off under the Senate Republican plan, and it would cost the taxpayers less,” Levitt said. “In general, the Senate Democratic plan, while it would cost the federal government more, would make coverage more affordable for a larger number of people.”
No surprise there. The Republican "plan" is essentially Potemkin village health insurance, a facade of health insurance geared for people who don't use much or who want to use health savings account money to (wait for it) invest in the stock market or in bonds. The Republican sabotage of the ACA would mean no affordable health care for millions and higher costs for everyone. But, they'll get their millionaire and billionaire tax cuts paid for!
(Cartoon: Jen Sorensen, The Nib)
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