Hours after the federal government’s closure, Julio Fuentes took steps from the American Capitol to transmit an urgent message on the Hispanic Block of Voting which helped the GOP in power last year.
These votes, he warned, are at risk if the congress does not adopt a law to preserve the lower bonuses in market plans on the affordable care law for the 4.7 million people living in its original state of Florida who are registered in coverage.
“Hispanic voters have helped to return Donald Trump to the White House,” said Fuentes, CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in the state of Florida, who called on the congress to reopen the government to conclude an agreement on tax credits. “Republican leaders would do the good of their voters to maintain affordable coverage, and they will remember to go to the middle.”
With less than a month before many Americans chose their health insurance plans for next year, Democrats in the congress grant government funding to put pressure on republicans to extend billions of dollars in federal tax credits which have considerably reduced premiums and contributed to record rates of uninsured Americans.
Democrats consider that the confrontation with high issues as a chance to speak of affordable health care as millions of Americans – including those registered with coverage through a workplace or health insurance – at a higher cost next year. Party leaders, in the hope of winning back the support of some of the working class supporters who have moved away from them, used the time to remind voters recent cuts that Republicans have approved to certain health care programs.
The Republicans externally give off the confidence that the approach will not find traction, reminding the public that the Democrats have forced the closure. But a new KFF analysis shows that 80% of all premium tax credits have benefited the registered in the States that Trump has won.
The judgment coincides with the open registration season, insurers preparing to send opinions revealing the premium rates next year for around 24 million people registered in the coverage of the ACA. Average registration should pay more than double if the tax credits must expire. Insurers have also said that they should considerably increase the price of bonuses because healthier people will retire from the coverage because it will become more expensive, leaving a more sick pool of Americans – and less money to cover them.
“In the coming days, what you will see is that more than 20 million Americans have increased health premiums, copays and health franchises due to the republican reluctance to extend the tax credits on affordable care,” said the head of the room minority, Hakeem Jeffries, on October 2 on the stages of the Capitol.
Open registrations in most states begin on November 1. Some insurers and exchanges have delayed the sending of notifications detailing bonus rates for next year, because they are waiting to see what is happening in Washington. For example, covered California, the state insurance market plans to send opinions to more than a million registered later than usual this year, on October 15.
From her home to Richmond, Virginia, Natalie Tyer, 31, is looking forward to the arrival of her opinion. It checks the state market website daily to see if new prices for its insurance plan have been displayed.
Tyer has been based on market coverage for over a year now while working part -time for a small video production business and continues a master’s degree to become a school advisor. Tax credits help cover $ 255 from its monthly premium, which reduces it to $ 53. As it is generally healthy, if the credits expire and its premiums increase considerably, it could completely lower the coverage.
“I should go very well without health insurance and maybe you should count on hope,” said Tyer.
The thrust of the Democrats to center the closure of the affordability of health care, however, comes up against many uncomfortable realities of the closure of the federal government, which will leave millions of federal workers without pay checks, to hinder certain functions of public health agencies and will threaten the payments of food aid for low -income mothers, among other effects.
ACA, on the other hand, has been a political flash since 2010, when the Republicans have fought against the adoption of historic health care legislation. A wave of congress republican victories quickly followed this fight, stimulating a government closure in 2013, when the GOP tried to empty the program. Party leaders tried again to repeal it in 2017 to follow a promise of Trump campaign.
The last confrontation – on the billions of dollars in tax credits that the Democrats issued during the Pandemic COVID -19 to stimulate the registration for ACA – has been simmering for months. The Democrats, who wrote the original legislation introducing and then extending them, set the improved tax credits to expire at the end of this year. Even some Republicans have started to warn this summer that permission of these tax credits could be harmful, republican pollsters Tony Fabrizio and Bob Ward issuing a note warning that an extension of credits could make a difference in the mid-term elections next year.
To extend the ACA tax credits, which have reduced monthly premiums to as little as $ 0 for the poorest registrants and capped the amount of average income with only 8.5% of their income, would also be a popular decision.
More than three -quarters of Americans want these tax credits to continue, according to a new KFF survey conducted before closing. About 3 out of 4 people said they would blame Trump or the GOP if they end. KFF is a non -profit organization for health information that includes Kff Health News.
Although they have refused to respond to tax credits so far this year, the leaders of the Republican Party have reported that they were willing to extend the ACA tax credits, but with new restrictions to which is qualified for them. GOP leadership also said they wanted to chop the details of politics over several weeks, not under the pistol of a closure.
On October 6, the president of the chamber, Mike Johnson, accused the democrats of making a political problem to close the government and urged them to adopt the continuous resolution just to “keep the lights on”.
“They decided that they would choose a fight against health care,” said Johnson, adding that he thought that the tax credits are “a number of December 31”, referring to the time when the credits should expire.
Since open registrations start next month, insurers will have to start publishing premium prices for customers to make windows in the coming days. Democrats argued that waiting for months to conclude an agreement, which could change these prices, could stimulate generalized confusion.
While more Americans seem to be lacking in Trump and the Republicans for the closure, only a quarter of people are convinced that the Democrats’ proposal to extend the ACA tax credits is worth closing the government, according to a CBS News survey during the weekend.
Health care is generally a winning message for Democrats, who have struggled to merge questions that have called on the working class in recent years, said William Pierce, a health policy consultant who has served by President George W. Bush.
“It’s all about health care. They have to do everything about health care,” said Pierce, describing it as a weak point for Republicans. “They just have to continue to talk about it, constantly.”
The Republicans of the White House and Congress have countered with factually questionable affirmations according to which Democrats seek to extend free health care for immigrants who have no legal status in the United States
In fact, these immigrants are not eligible for registration on the market, and the Democrats did not propose to open the coverage of the ACA in their proposal.
Back in Richmond, while Tyer is concerned about her coverage for next year, she took the trouble to see the debate focus on immigrants. Some of his classmates and colleagues are also worried.
“The reality is that what is happening with these tax credits is that normal people – people who want to work in the public sector, who want to educate children – we will also lose health care,” said Tyer.
The main correspondent of Kff Health News, Bernard J. Wolfson, contributed to this report.
