For those who follow health-care policy closely, it’s been obvious for quite a while that health insurance premiums were poised to soar, especially as Republicans allow Covid-era subsidies to expire. The problem, however, has been on the horizon for a long time.
That’s no longer the case; the problem is here. Many Americans are now confronting the severity of increased costs, with millions of families facing payments that will double or even triple in 2026.
The conditions have left GOP officials with limited options about how best to respond to the problem. Much of the party has effectively settled on the position of “this doesn’t really matter.” The Hill reported:
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz downplayed on Wednesday the likely substantial increase in the amount Americans will pay for health insurance on the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) federal marketplace.
At an event ostensibly about prescription drug costs, a reporter asked, “Unless those tax credits are extended, the subsidies, the average plan will increase for Americans by somewhere around 115%. Do you believe that Congress should extend those subsidies so that most Americans do not receive significant increases in their premiums?”
Mehmet Oz, the former television personality who was tapped to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, asked about the source of the figure. The reporter noted that the statistic came by way of KFF, a leading health research group (formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation).
Oz responded that KFF had retracted that assessment (that does not appear to be the case), before adding that “the truth” is that the average American who gets coverage through the Affordable Care Act will only have to pay $13 more next year. He added that increased costs are “not the big issue.”
Right off the bat, it’s worth emphasizing that Oz’s claims weren’t true: It’s not clear where his claim about $13 in additional costs comes from, but the actual increases are on track to be vastly worse.
Complicating matters, however, is the frequency with which other Republicans are also responding to the conditions with shrugged shoulders. House Speaker Mike Johnson, for example, last week derided the “so-called forthcoming health-care crisis.”
The same day, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin told CNBC viewers, “I don’t think this is going to be any kind of gut-wrenching problem if these enhanced subsidies just go away.”
A few days later, Republican Rep. Mark Alford of Missouri acknowledged that many U.S. consumers will have “a hard time” dealing with the increased coverage costs, but he wanted his party to stay the course anyway.
The Republican answer to this problem is to downplay the importance of the problem. That seems politically untenable, but for now, GOP officials don’t appear to have an alternative.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
