Bipartisan Obamacare subsidies fix eludes Senate as premiums set to spike for Americans
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A bipartisan Obamacare solution remains out of reach in the Senate for now, with lawmakers unable to agree on who is at fault.
While many agree that the looming health care cliff will cause financial pain, the partisan divide has quickly turned to pointing across the aisle at who owns the dizzying health premium increases that Americans who use the health care exchange will face.
Some of the finger-pointing led to another surprising agreement: Lawmakers do not view the rapid end of the Biden-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies as a failure by Congress to act in time.
“Obviously this is not a failure of Congress to act,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told Fox News Digital. “This is a failure of Republicans to act. Democrats are united and want to expand subsidies. Republicans want premium increases to increase.”
Partisan anger over Obamacare is also reflected in how lawmakers weigh the impact expiring subsidies will have on their constituents. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., argued that this was a “life or death” situation, while Republicans argued that Democrats had set up the very cliff they were maligning. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
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Senate Republicans and Democrats tried and failed earlier this month to advance their own partisan plans to replace or extend the subsidies. And since then, no steps have been taken to deal with the fast-approaching problem, which guarantees that the subsidies will end at the end of the year.
A report published last month Kaiser Family Foundationa nonprofit health think tank, found that Americans with credit would see an average 114% increase in premium costs.
The increase may vary depending on how far above the poverty line a person is. While the original premium subsidies set a ceiling of 400% above the poverty level, increased subsidies adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic have burned that ceiling.
For example, a person age 60 and older making 401% of the poverty line, or about $62,000 a year, would see premium prices double on average. This number can grow rapidly depending on the state. Wyoming had the highest increase at 421%.
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Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., doesn’t want to blow up Obamacare or get rid of Obamacare subsidies, but he does want to give Americans more options for health care. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
In Murphy’s home state of Connecticut, the price of premiums under the same parameters would increase by 316%.
“When this is over, people are going to die,” Murphy said. “I mean, a few months ago, I was talking to a couple who had two parents who both had chronic, potentially life-threatening illnesses and could only afford insurance for one. So they’re talking about which parent will survive to raise their three children. The risk is life or death.”
Both sides have opposing views on the solution. Senate Republicans argue that the loans effectively provide subsidies by funneling money directly to insurance companies, not patients, and that the program is rife with fraud.
Senate Democrats want this extension of subsidies and are ready to negotiate future fixes. But they want to see some immediate reforms for the GOP, such as income limits, anti-fraud measures and stricter anti-abortion language tied to subsidies.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who is crafting his own health plan that would convert subsidies into health savings accounts (HSAs), argued that congressional Democrats are “setting this up to end.”
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R.S.D.) criticized Senate Democrats’ Obamacare subsidy proposal as “clearly designed to fail.” (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
But he does not share the view that the expected expiration of subsidies is a life or death situation.
“I don’t tax someone who makes $20 an hour for health care for someone who makes half a million dollars a year, which is what they did,” he told Fox News Digital. “All they did was mask the increase in health care costs. That’s what they did.”
Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., similarly scoffed at the idea, telling Fox News Digital: “Democrats’ plan to expand COVID-era Obamacare subsidies could help less than half a percent of the American population.”
“The Republican plan reduces healthcare costs for 100% of Americans,” he said. “More competition expands health savings accounts. That needs to be the focus.”
Democrats have also made no secret of their disdain for the partisan divide between their approaches to health care.
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, told Fox News Digital that the idea that this was “a congressional failure and not Republican policy” is implausible.
“They hated the Affordable Care Act since its inception and tried to repeal it at every possible opportunity,” he said, referring to Obamacare. “The president hates the ACA, the speaker hates the ACA, the majority leader hates the ACA, the rank-and-file hates the ACA. So this is not a failure of bipartisanship.”
As partisan anger over Obamacare deepens, there are Republicans and Democrats working together to create a new plan. Still, it can’t address the fast-approaching Dec. 31 deadline for extending subsidies.
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R.S.D.) predicted the Senate will have a long way to go before a bipartisan plan emerges in the new year, but he didn’t rule it out.
“It’s the Christmas season. A Christmas miracle has to happen before anything can actually get done there,” he said. “But you know, I think there’s a potential path, but it’s going to be a heavy lift.”
