Democrats have long recognized that Americans deserve affordable medical care. For much of our history, you got the best care in the world only if you were wealthy. Everyone else lived a different reality.
Even if you were “lucky” enough to have insurance, you could hit coverage caps just as you got sick or be denied because of a preexisting condition. If you were self-employed, worked a job without benefits, or lived with chronic illness, getting insured was often out of reach. In the wealthiest country on earth, families were pushed into bankruptcy and people died of preventable conditions.
That’s why, when Democrats controlled the House, Senate, and White House, they passed the Affordable Care Act.
For as long as Democrats have worked to put care within reach, Republican politicians have fought them. They spread lies that the ACA had “death panels.” When adjustments were needed to bring down exchange premiums, they blocked fixes instead of helping it work better. They took vote after vote to repeal the ACA, and to this day have no replacement plan.
Now Congressional Republicans are sabotaging the ACA in a new way, allowing premiums to skyrocket by an average of 114% for more than 100,000 Idahoans who get their coverage through Your Health Idaho.
In Council, retired teacher Bob McMichael pays about $50 a month for family coverage. Without the credits, his premium is projected to jump to $2,200. In Boise, retiree Susan Wood pays $72 a month; without the credits, she’s projected to pay $700. They are not alone. If these credits expire, about 25,000 Idahoans are projected to lose coverage.
There is a simple way to stop this.
Democrats brought forward a three-year extension of the enhanced premium tax credits. Polling shows nearly 75% of Americans support extending them, including a majority of Republicans.
Mike Crapo and Jim Risch voted no.
Then Crapo came back with a years-old plan that experts have warned will raise premiums for Americans and throw the health care market into a tailspin. It sprinkles meager dollars into health savings accounts while blocking people from using those funds to pay their premiums, pushing more people into bare-bones, high-deductible plans and higher out-of-pocket costs. Even a Republican senator admitted it “doesn’t deal with premiums, and it doesn’t deal with the extension [of the subsidies], which is the current crisis.”
Democrats are fighting for coverage you can count on when your mother gets a cancer diagnosis, your child needs asthma treatment, or you rely on medication to control your blood pressure. Republicans are doing what they’ve done for decades: blocking real solutions to protect their billionaire tax cuts.
Idahoans deserve better. Let’s vote for leaders who will deliver.
Onward,
Lauren Necochea
Idaho Democratic Party Chair