{"id":245233,"date":"2025-10-28T00:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T00:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/245233\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T00:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T00:54:10","slug":"republicans-grapple-with-voter-frustration-over-rising-health-care-premiums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/245233\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans grapple with voter frustration over rising health care premiums"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON — The first caller on a telephone town hall with Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, leader of the House\u2019s conservative Freedom Caucus, came ready with a question about the Affordable Care Act. Her cousin’s disabled son is at risk of losing the insurance he gained under that law<\/a>, the caller said. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow she\u2019s looking at two or three times the premium that she\u2019s been paying for the insurance,\u201d said the woman, identified as Lisa from Harford County, Maryland. \u201cI\u2019d love for you to elucidate what the Republicans\u2019 plan is for health insurance?\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris, a seven-term Republican, didn\u2019t have a clear answer. \u201cWe think the solution is to try to do something to make sure all the premiums go down,\u201d he said, predicting Congress would \u201cprobably negotiate some off-ramp\u201d later.<\/p>\n

His uncertainty reflected a familiar Republican dilemma: Fifteen years after the Affordable Care Act was enacted, the party remains united in criticizing the law but divided on how to move forward. That tension has come into sharp focus<\/a> during the government shutdown<\/a> as Democrats seize on rising premiums to pressure Republicans<\/a> into extending expiring subsidies for the law, often referred to as Obamacare.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump and GOP leaders say they\u2019ll consider extending the enhanced tax credits that otherwise expire at year’s end \u2014 but only after Democrats vote to reopen the government. In the meantime, people enrolled in the plans are already being notified of hefty premium increases for 2026. <\/p>\n

As town halls fill with frustrated voters and no clear Republican plan emerges<\/a>, the issue appears to be gaining political strength<\/a> heading into next year’s midterm elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cPremiums are going up whether it gets extended or not,\u201d said GOP Sen. Rick Scott. \u201cPremiums are going up because health care costs are going up. Because Obamacare is a disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the center of the shutdown \u2014 now in its fourth week with no end in sight \u2014 is a Democratic demand that Affordable Care Act subsidies passed in 2021 be extended.<\/p>\n

Trump has long promised an alternative. \u201cThe cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it\u2019s not good Healthcare,\u201d he wrote on Truth Social in November 2023. \u201cI\u2019m seriously looking at alternatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed on health care during a September 2024 presidential debate, Trump said he had \u201cconcepts of a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

But nearly 10 months into his presidency, that plan has yet to come. Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told NBC on Wednesday, \u201cI fully believe the president has a plan,\u201d but didn’t go into details.<\/p>\n

Republicans say they want a broader overhaul of the health care system, though such a plan would be difficult to advance before next year. Party leaders have not outlined how they\u2019ll handle the expiring tax credits, insisting they won\u2019t negotiate on the issue until Democrats agree to end the shutdown.<\/p>\n

A September analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that permanently extending the tax credits would increase the deficit by $350 billion from 2026 to 2035. The number of people with health insurance would rise by 3.8 million in 2035 if the credits are kept, CBO projected. <\/p>\n

Asked Wednesday on CNN whether Republicans have a plan to address the subsidies if the government reopened, House Speaker Mike Johnson said they had \u201cproposals\u201d that can be \u201cready immediately.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very complicated, very complex issue, that requires a long time to build consensus around,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With notices of premium spikes<\/a> landing in mailboxes now and the open enrollment period for Affordable Care Act health plans beginning Nov. 1, the political pressure has been evident in Republican town halls.<\/p>\n

In Idaho, Rep. Russ Fulcher told concerned callers that \u201cgovernment provided health care is the wrong path\u201d and that \u201cprivate health care is the right path.\u201d In Texas, freshman Rep. Brandon Gill responded to a caller facing a sharp premium increase by saying Republicans are focused on cutting waste, fraud and abuse.<\/p>\n

Harris echoed a message shared by many in his party during his Maryland town hall, saying costs are \u201cjust going back to what it was like before COVID.”<\/p>\n

But the number of people who rely on Affordable Care Act health insurance has increased markedly since before the pandemic. More than 24 million people were enrolled in the marketplace plans in 2025, up from about 11 million in 2020, according to an analysis from the health care research nonprofit KFF.<\/p>\n

Sara from Middleville, Michigan, told Rep. John Moolenaar during his town hall that if health insurance premiums go up by as much as 75%, most people will probably go without heath care. “So how do you address that?\u201d she asked. <\/p>\n

Moolenaar, who represents a district he handily won last year, responded: \u201cWe have time to negotiate, figure out a plan going forward and I think that\u2019s something that could occur.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Republicans have shown urgent concern. In a letter sent to Johnson, a group of 13 battleground House Republicans wrote that the party must \u201cimmediately turn our focus to the growing crisis of health care affordability\u201d once the shutdown ends.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we did not create this crisis, we now have both the responsibility and the opportunity to address it,\u201d the lawmakers wrote. <\/p>\n

Some Republicans dismiss projections that ACA premiums will more than double without the subsidies, calling them exaggerated and arguing the law has fueled fraud and abuse that must be curbed.<\/p>\n

Many Democrats credited their ability to flip the House in 2018 during Trump\u2019s first term to the GOP\u2019s attempt at repealing Obamacare, and they\u2019re forecasting a similar outcome this time. <\/p>\n

About 4 in 10 U.S. adults say they trust the Democrats to do a better job handling health care, compared with about one-quarter who trust the Republicans more, a recent AP-NORC poll<\/a> found. About one-quarter trust neither party, and about 1 in 10 trust both equally, according to the poll.<\/p>\n

Even as GOP leaders pledge to discuss ending the subsidies when the government opens, it’s clear that many Republican lawmakers are adamantly opposed to an extension.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least among Republicans, there\u2019s a growing sense that just maintaining the status quo is very destructive,\u201d said Brian Blase, the president of Paragon Health Institute and a former health policy adviser to Trump during his first term.<\/p>\n

Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, said he\u2019s working with multiple congressional offices on alternatives that would let the subsidies end. For example, he wants to expand the Affordable Care Act exemption given to U.S. territories to all 50 states and reintroduce a first-term Trump policy that gave Americans access to short-term health insurance plans outside the Affordable Care Act marketplace.<\/p>\n

Cannon declined to name the lawmakers he\u2019s working with, but said he hopes they act on his ideas \u201csooner than later.\u201d<\/p>\n

David McIntosh, president of the influential conservative group Club For Growth, told reporters Thursday that the group has \u201curged the Republicans not to extend those COVID-era subsidies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a big spending problem,\u201d McIntosh said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think most people are going to say, OK, I had a great deal during COVID,\u201d he said. \u201cBut now it\u2019s back to business as usual, and I should be paying for health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

__<\/p>\n

Swenson reported from New York. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON — The first caller on a telephone town hall with Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, leader of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[145872,4225,64,63,482,9284,137,9280,508,500,84,25395,96361,488,19400,8987],"class_list":["post-245233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-145872","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-general-news","tag-government-programs","tag-health","tag-health-care-costs","tag-health-care-industry","tag-healthcare","tag-politics","tag-subsidies","tag-u-s-government-shutdown","tag-u-s-news","tag-voting","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}