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West Scranton resident Lori Geiger says she is concerned about the rising cost of healthcare. (CHAD SEBRING\/STAFF PHOTO)<\/p>\nWest Scranton resident Lori Geiger is disabled, suffered a stroke last year, was hospitalized in January with a severe case of influenza and lives with a number of health challenges, including pronounced gastrointestinal issues and congestive heart failure.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s enrolled in a Geisinger Gold Medicare Advantage insurance plan and relies on Social Security Disability Insurance for her modest monthly income, but accrued close to $3,000 in medical debt this year alone as copays and out-of-pocket costs accumulated. That debt and the prospect of it growing with future doctor visits, potential hospitalizations and possible ambulance trips is a real source of anxiety for Geiger, a progressive Democrat grappling with high gas prices, inflation and broader affordability challenges she attributes to \u201cdeliberate policy choices\u201d by Republicans.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time you go to the doctor\u2019s office and it comes up on the computer \u2014 \u2018well would you like to make a payment?\u2019 \u2014 it\u2019s like, yes, but I\u2019d also like to have a roof over my head, so I really can\u2019t right now,\u201d the 60-year-old woman said in a recent interview. \u201cIt\u2019s stressful. \u2026 Unfortunately some people have to delay care because they know they can\u2019t afford it, even with coverage, and then problems get worse and more expensive down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
West Scranton resident Lori Geiger says she is concerned about the rising cost of healthcare. (CHAD SEBRING\/STAFF PHOTO)<\/p>\n
Geiger is aligned with a local coalition of residents, progressive activists, union healthcare workers and others focused on healthcare and health insurance affordability, key concerns for many voters this midterm election cycle. And while she and other Affordable Healthcare for NEPA coalition members and allies interviewed for this report are Democrats, polling shows bipartisan anxiety over high healthcare costs.<\/p>\n
A professional poll the coalition commissioned earlier this year found 71% of Northeast Pennsylvania voters were at least somewhat worried about being able to afford health insurance, a summary of the poll conducted by Upswing Research and Strategy shows. The survey of 500 registered voters included, among others, voters in the 8th Congressional District, where Democratic Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti is vying to unseat incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, and the GOP-heavy 9th Congressional District, where Schuylkill County Democrat Rachel Wallace is challenging incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser.<\/p>\n
The same poll found 83% of voters, including 84% of Democrats and 84% of Republicans, \u201cagree that health insurance companies should commit or be required to freeze out-of-pocket costs to halt the growing increase in costs,\u201d per the summary.<\/p>\n
Democratic edge<\/p>\n
A more recent KFF Health Tracking Poll<\/a> released earlier this month found a large enthusiasm gap between Democrats and Republicans heading into the midterms, and that the Democratic Party has \u201ca clear edge\u201d over the GOP on who voters trust to handle the cost of healthcare, the cost of living and other important election issues. It also identified health costs as a top affordability anxiety for voters, six in 10 of whom are worried about being able to afford their healthcare expenses, per the poll.<\/p>\n \u201cOf all the cost-of-living worries hitting voters now, a big health care bill is the least predictable, and that\u2019s a big reason why health care costs are right up there with gas prices and the costs of food and housing on voters\u2019 minds,\u201d KFF President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman said in a news release about the poll.<\/p>\n It notes Democrats \u201chold nearly a two-to-one advantage over Republicans on whom voters trust more on the issue of health care costs,\u201d with 42% of voters saying they trust Democrats to do a better job handling the cost of healthcare compared to just 22% that said they trust Republicans more in that respect. It\u2019s a gap that\u2019s widened since April, when 37% of voters said they trusted Democrats and 26% said they trusted Republicans to do a better job addressing those costs.<\/p>\n The population of local voters who trust Democrats considerably more than Republicans on the healthcare front includes nursing home employee Dorsey Rebillard, 26, and retiree Donna Gerhardt, 64, both of whom are voting blue.<\/p>\n Rebillard, a coalition member and SEIU Healthcare PA union worker at Oak Ridge Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Taylor, where she earns about $16.30 an hour as an activities aide, lives in Taylor with her 72-year-old retired father. Between her share of her employer-sponsored health insurance, the cost of his Medicare supplement insurance and prescription drug coverage and their combined out-of-pocket expenses, healthcare is a major burden for the household.<\/p>\n \u201cHis Social Security and my paycheck barely make ends meet,\u201d Rebillard said. \u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for us two being together \u2014 I live in a shoebox \u2014 I couldn\u2019t imagine being by myself with a $16.30-an-hour job. \u2026 And my dad, being an elder in the community, he feels it worse because he\u2019s saying, \u2018Well, I\u2019m on a fixed income, how much more can I stretch? I can\u2019t afford gas. I can\u2019t afford my out-of-pocket prescription prices, because they went up again too.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n A member political organizer for her union who\u2019s been canvasing for Cognetti, Rebillard also said higher grocery prices, utility bills and the general cost of living becoming more expensive have exacerbated her financial anxieties.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s almost life or death,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel that if we don\u2019t pay our bills we lose everything we have, but if we can\u2019t afford to keep going it could kill us. You can\u2019t pay for your health insurance and pay for your groceries and try to work as many hours as you possibly can, you just get burnt out, and it\u2019s going to burn people out to the point where they can\u2019t handle it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Premium pressure<\/p>\n Dorsey and other Democrats were quick to criticize Bresnahan over his vote for the 2025 Republican megabill that included major cuts and changes to Medicaid, with some describing it as a betrayal. Meuser and almost every other House Republican also voted for the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill Act\u201d \u2014 fellow Pennsylvania Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick was one of two who didn\u2019t \u2014 that remains the GOP\u2019s signature legislative accomplishment of the second Trump administration.<\/p>\n But Bresnahan was in much rarer Republican company when he bucked House GOP leadership in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to extend enhanced pandemic-era subsidies that made health insurance purchased through Affordable Care Act marketplaces more affordable for millions of Americans, including Gerhardt. Her monthly premium for insurance coverage purchased through Pennie, Pennsylvania\u2019s ACA marketplace, essentially tripled after Congress failed to extend those subsidies that expired at the end of 2025.<\/p>\n Bresnahan helped force a House vote<\/a> in early January on legislation extending the expired subsidies, but the legislation stalled in the Senate after clearing the lower chamber.<\/p>\n Gerhardt, a longtime human resources professional who retired in 2023 and moved from New Jersey to Monroe County with her husband, saw the monthly premium cost of her Ambetter Health plan jump from about $575 last year to nearly $1,500 this year. And she\u2019s prepared to soon pay more than $2,000 a month after the Pennsylvania Insurance Department<\/a> recently approved a 35.1% average rate hike for Ambetter individual plans<\/a> for the 2027 plan year.<\/p>\n Premium costs alone, not counting deductibles and other healthcare expenses, will eat up about half of Gerhardt\u2019s annual retirement income from Social Security and a small pension. It\u2019s the cost of \u201cjust having insurance, not actually using it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Gerhardt won\u2019t become Medicare eligible until the fourth quarter of 2027, and said health insurance cost increases have already forced her to make sacrifices. Among other examples, she said she curtailed charitable contributions, went without dental insurance this year, cut back on planned travel and opted to forgo replacing her 11-year-old car.<\/p>\n