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An exam room at the Vera Whole Health clinic in Midtown Anchorage in 2018. (Loren Holmes \/ ADN) <\/p>\nAn exam room at the Vera Whole Health clinic in Midtown Anchorage in 2018. (Loren Holmes \/ ADN) <\/p>\n
Despite efforts from Alaska\u2019s two U.S. senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, thousands of Alaskans who rely on federal subsidies for health insurance are set to change the way they access health care in the coming year \u2014 or go without. <\/p>\n
Enhanced premium tax credits, enacted in 2022 by Democrats in Congress to help people afford health insurance during the COVID-19 pandemic, are expiring at the end of the year.<\/p>\n
Amid rising premium costs, roughly 25,000 Alaskans rely on the tax credits to afford plans purchased on the Affordable Care Act marketplace. <\/p>\n
Murkowski and Sullivan have said for months that they are working to extend the subsidies, even as they have said that the tax credits have done little to keep the cost of health care for Alaskans in check. But the Senate came up short<\/a>, and beginning Jan. 1, thousands of Alaskans will be forced to pay significantly more for health insurance, or give up their plans entirely. <\/p>\n When adopted by Congress in 2022, the enhanced premium tax credits were layered on top of existing premium tax credits that had tighter income caps. Now, the more generous subsidies are expiring while some basic subsidies remain on the books. That creates what some call a price \u201ccliff.\u201d<\/p>\n For some Alaskans, the solution to maintaining their health insurance is to earn just enough to avoid that cliff \u2014 even at the expense of limiting their contributions to the community and the income that their family relies on. <\/p>\n Jeigh Stanton Gregor, a licensed counselor and Petersburg Borough Assembly member who lives in the Southeast fishing community with his wife and two kids, said he will have to approach his business differently when the new year begins. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve decided that unless Congress does change that, we will have to stay away from that financial cliff edge, and just see less people. I\u2019ll tell my patients: \u2018I\u2019m sorry, I can\u2019t see you as much, because I need to afford health care for my family,\u2019\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Stanton Gregor this year paid roughly $900 per month in premiums. Without the subsidies, the cost of his Premera Blue Cross plan would jump to roughly $3,500 per month. He is planning to limit the number of times he sees his existing patients, and see fewer new patients, to ensure that he earns below the threshold to qualify for the remaining subsidies. For his family, that threshold is roughly $160,000 in annual gross income. <\/p>\n \u201cI have to limit my mental health services to people in this community to afford health care,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In October and November, the government shut down as congressional Democrats sought to pressure their GOP colleagues to extend the subsidies<\/a>. Stanton Gregor said he was \u201choping against hope\u201d that the shutdown \u2014 which became the longest on record \u2014 would yield an extension of the subsidies. But the shutdown ended without resolution on the subsidies, other than a promise to vote in December on a Democratic proposal to extend them. That vote failed, even with Sullivan and Murkowski joining Democrats to support it, amid opposition from most Republicans.<\/p>\n \u201cI was really bummed that did not get addressed,\u201d said Stanton Gregor. <\/p>\n Nan Schleusner, a human resources consultant in Anchorage, said last month that her monthly premium of $1,380 for her family of three would go up to roughly $4,300 next year for the same plan.<\/p>\n The failed Senate vote earlier this month on a Democrat-backed proposal to extend the premiums by three years was \u201ca big middle finger for people like me,\u201d Schleusner said. <\/p>\n The deadline to enroll in coverage that begins on Jan. 1 came and went on Dec. 15 \u2014 meaning people who rely on insurance purchased through the ACA marketplace have already locked in their plans for the first month of the year. <\/p>\n But some in Congress are still hanging their hopes on a secondary deadline of Jan. 15 for coverage beginning Feb. 1.<\/p>\n Schleusner said she is praying that Congress extends the tax credits next month. <\/p>\n \u201cI know that it can happen, but at this rate, I\u2019m very doubtful it will happen,\u201d she said. \u201cIt feels like both sides are talking past each other, versus trying to solve the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Murkowski\u2019s spokesperson Joe Plesha said this week that the senator \u201chas not given up.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe has remained actively engaged in negotiations over the holidays to extend the enhanced premium tax credits and prevent a sharp increase in health care costs for families across the country,\u201d Plesha said in a statement, adding that \u201cMurkowski will continue pressing leadership, the White House, and her colleagues to act quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n Sullivan said earlier this week that he is still working with colleagues on a compromise that may pass Congress in the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n \u201cI literally was working on it with some Senate colleagues today,\u201d Sullivan said in an interview Tuesday. \u201cThere\u2019s got to be compromise on both sides of the aisle.\u201d<\/p>\n Sullivan has pushed for a short-term extension to the credits alongside new limits, including new income caps. Sullivan is up for reelection in November. He said part of whether a compromise is reached depends on the approach of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat.<\/p>\n \u201cDoes he want to get to a compromise position, or does he want to use this as a campaign issue next year?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Alaska\u2019s lone U.S. House member, Nick Begich, has been silent on the issue of extending the health care subsidies, which are opposed by leaders of his caucus. He has declined to answer multiple questions on the topic from the Daily News, and he did not join any of the efforts by some of his moderate GOP colleagues to push for a vote<\/a> on extending the subsidies before the holiday recess. <\/p>\n In a statement earlier this month, Begich blamed the Affordable Care Act for rising costs, and celebrated a House GOP health care bill that did not extend the subsidies. That bill passed the House before the holiday recess but was not considered in the Senate. <\/p>\n \u201cWe must now construct a system that delivers results \u2014 a system where Americans can honestly say they are getting their money\u2019s worth,\u201d Begich said in a statement.<\/p>\n Mark Robokoff, a pet supply shop owner in Anchorage, said last week that after debating what to do in the face of his rising premium, he \u201cthrew up his hands.\u201d He will be paying close to $3,000 per month beginning in January, for a plan that cost him under $1,000 per month this year. <\/p>\n \u201cI feel pretty abandoned by our government on this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An exam room at the Vera Whole Health clinic in Midtown Anchorage in 2018. 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