\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe spending package approved this week keeps the federal government funded, but it does not address the expiration of key Affordable Care Act health care subsidies\u2014an issue that lawmakers say was the primary driver of last year\u2019s record 43-day government shutdown.Those subsidies, known as the Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits (EPTCs), helped lower monthly premiums for many families.With the credits now lapsed, several Northern and Central California Democrats say constituents are already seeing higher costs\u2014and they\u2019re urging the Senate to act.Rep. Ami Bera (D\u2013Rancho Cordova) pointed to recent House action to extend the subsidies. His office said Bera backed a discharge petition that would extend ACA subsidies for three years and \u201curges Senate Republicans to take up this vote and deliver much-needed relief for Sacramento County families.\u201dRep. Mike Thompson (D\u2013Woodland) said he supported extending the credits because \u201cwe need to lower health care costs,\u201d noting Democrats pushed for months and ultimately gained support from 17 House Republicans. Thompson warned that without the credits, \u201cfamilies are being forced to choose between junk plans that provide worse coverage at higher costs or no health insurance at all.””That\u2019s unacceptable,” Thompson added. “The Senate must act immediately.”Rep. John Garamendi (D\u2013Fairfield) stressed that the funding bill offered no fix. \u201cThe government funding bill that passed today did not have any extension of the ACA subsidies,\u201d he said, adding that while leadership talks continue, \u201csince Republicans control Congress they are likely not going to extend them.\u201dRep. Josh Harder (D\u2013Stockton) criticized the broader budget process and said Congress is missing the moment. \u201cI\u2019m incredibly frustrated with the entire process,\u201d Harder said. \u201cICE is out of control, families are losing their health care\u2026 Congress needs to get its act together and pass a legitimate budget that actually helps our families.\u201dRep. Doris Matsui (D\u2013Sacramento) said the lapse is already hitting families hard. \u201cAcross Sacramento and the country, people are seeing their premiums skyrocket, sometimes by hundreds of dollars a month.\u201d She argued, \u201cthis outcome was not inevitable,\u201d and said, \u201cThis spending package does nothing to fix the damage.\u201dAs Democrats push to restore the EPTCs, President Donald Trump is promoting what he calls the \u201cGreat Healthcare Plan,\u201d centered on sending money \u201cdirectly to the American people,\u201d aggressive prescription-drug price reductions through a \u201cmost-favored-nations\u201d approach, and expanded price transparency requirements. Trump has argued, \u201cThe government is going to pay the money directly to you,\u201d and says the goal is to lower premiums and drug costs while putting \u201cpatients over\u201d industry profits.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The spending package approved this week keeps the federal government funded<\/a>, but it does not address the expiration of key Affordable Care Act health care subsidies\u2014an issue that lawmakers say was the primary driver of last year\u2019s record 43-day government shutdown.<\/p>\n Those subsidies, known as the Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits (EPTCs), helped lower monthly premiums for many families.<\/p>\n With the credits now lapsed, several Northern and Central California Democrats say constituents are already seeing higher costs\u2014and they\u2019re urging the Senate to act.<\/p>\n Rep. Ami Bera (D\u2013Rancho Cordova) pointed to recent House action to extend the subsidies. His office said Bera backed a discharge petition that would extend ACA subsidies for three years and \u201curges Senate Republicans to take up this vote and deliver much-needed relief for Sacramento County families.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Mike Thompson (D\u2013Woodland) said he supported extending the credits because \u201cwe need to lower health care costs,\u201d noting Democrats pushed for months and ultimately gained support from 17 House Republicans. Thompson warned that without the credits, \u201cfamilies are being forced to choose between junk plans that provide worse coverage at higher costs or no health insurance at all.”<\/p>\n “That\u2019s unacceptable,” Thompson added. “The Senate must act immediately.”<\/p>\n Rep. John Garamendi (D\u2013Fairfield) stressed that the funding bill offered no fix. \u201cThe government funding bill that passed today did not have any extension of the ACA subsidies,\u201d he said, adding that while leadership talks continue, \u201csince Republicans control Congress they are likely not going to extend them.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Josh Harder (D\u2013Stockton) criticized the broader budget process and said Congress is missing the moment. \u201cI\u2019m incredibly frustrated with the entire process,\u201d Harder said. \u201cICE is out of control, families are losing their health care\u2026 Congress needs to get its act together and pass a legitimate budget that actually helps our families.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Doris Matsui (D\u2013Sacramento) said the lapse is already hitting families hard. \u201cAcross Sacramento and the country, people are seeing their premiums skyrocket, sometimes by hundreds of dollars a month.\u201d She argued, \u201cthis outcome was not inevitable,\u201d and said, \u201cThis spending package does nothing to fix the damage.\u201d<\/p>\n As Democrats push to restore the EPTCs, President Donald Trump is promoting what he calls the \u201cGreat Healthcare Plan,\u201d centered on sending money \u201cdirectly to the American people,\u201d aggressive prescription-drug price reductions through a \u201cmost-favored-nations\u201d approach, and expanded price transparency requirements. Trump has argued, \u201cThe government is going to pay the money directly to you,\u201d and says the goal is to lower premiums and drug costs while putting \u201cpatients over\u201d industry profits.<\/p>\n See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The spending package approved this week keeps the federal government funded, but it does not address the expiration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6864,1756,79055,7,9,8,32545,1752,13992,79058,79051,1280,79054,79056,7036,79053,3906,79057,592,3020,18764,79052,1753,79059,1519],"class_list":["post-163261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-aca","tag-affordable-care-act","tag-ca-democrats","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-representatives","tag-congress","tag-credit","tag-eptc","tag-funding-bill","tag-health-care","tag-health-care-subsidy","tag-health-insurance-subsidy","tag-last-year","tag-many-family","tag-month","tag-monthly-premium","tag-people","tag-president-trump","tag-senate","tag-spending-plan","tag-subsidy","tag-thompson","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}