Washington D.C — On Saturday, The New York Times Editorial Board detailed how congressional Republicans are making coverage more expensive and less accessible for millions of Americans. For all the rhetoric Republicans in Congress use to dress up their attacks on health care, the substance is straightforward: they passed sweeping Medicaid cuts and got rid of ACA tax credits, putting affordable coverage further out of reach for working families. Meanwhile, they gave billionaires even more massive tax breaks.
But the scale of the damage will be difficult to hide, with the consequences for working families already becoming clear. Middle-class, middle-aged couples with two children could see their premiums more than double, costing them an additional $3,500 annually. Altogether, Republicans’ health care cuts could erase roughly half of the coverage gains from the ACA and leave 14 million more Americans uninsured. Congressional Republicans may try to distance themselves from these consequences, but families facing higher premiums and lost coverage will still be left paying the prices thanks to the policies Republicans supported.
The New York Times: Republicans Are Trying to Hide These Health Care Cuts
Key Points:
- In 2010, nearly 18 percent of people under 65 lacked insurance. By 2024, the rate had fallen below 10 percent, thanks to the Affordable Care Act and later legislation that built on it.
- President Trump and congressional Republicans are working to dismantle that achievement. They have effectively cut subsidies for the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces, making it harder for people who do not receive insurance through work to afford a plan.
- In addition to reducing the marketplace subsidies, Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans enacted sweeping cuts to Medicaid, which expanded under the Affordable Care Act. They will take effect after this year’s midterm elections. (Yes, that timing is deliberate.)
- By 2034, the combined cuts will most likely erase about half of the gains from the Affordable Care Act, causing 14 million Americans to lose insurance.
- Republicans, however, are taking deliberate steps to make health care less affordable. Many middle-class and poor Americans will struggle — even more — to afford important medical care as a result.
- Republicans’ attacks on affordable health care have taken two forms: one more passive, the other more direct.
- In the passive approach, Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans allowed the expiration of enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces
- Those health insurance cuts led premiums and deductibles to spike this year. As an example, a middle-income, middle-aged couple with two children could see their premiums more than double, costing an additional $3,500 a year.
- In the more direct approach to cutting health care coverage, Republicans targeted Medicaid, the program focused on the poor and disabled. Last year, the federal government enacted what Republicans call a work requirement. In reality, it is a paperwork requirement — one that forces Medicaid enrollees, most of whom are working or have a valid reason for not working, to file repeated documents proving they have a job or a valid exemption.
- The Affordable Care Act was a triumph of government, and it is justifiably popular. Mr. Trump and other Republicans once promised to repeal the law, but they have largely stopped making such statements. Instead, they have sought to weaken the law — partly out of an ideological aversion to government, partly to finance tax cuts for the wealthy — and hope that voters do not notice.
- Congress should be looking for next steps, not moving backward. The Affordable Care Act demonstrated that progress is possible.
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About Unrig Our Economy
Unrig Our Economy is a national campaign to fix the rules of our economy to make it work for working people. We know that when the middle class does well, all of us do well — which is why we’re fighting on behalf of working Americans and holding corporations, their wealthy executives, and the politicians who enable them accountable.