As congressional Republicans refuse to budge on Democrats' demands to extend expanded healthcare tax credits as a precondition for funding the federal government, a new poll shows US voters are deeply concerned about how the expiration of these credits will impact their insurance premiums.
As The Associated Press reported on Tuesday, the AP-NORC poll shows 6 in 10 Americans are "extremely" or "very" worried about their healthcare costs going up over the next year, while 4 in 10 Americans are "extremely" or "very" worried about not being able to afford healthcare and medications they need.
In interviews with the AP, some poll respondents explained why they are feeling so acutely anxious about their access to healthcare in the coming year.
"Even before these healthcare cuts came into play, I was already having a significant issue getting the care that I needed this year,” said Latoya Wilson, a 46-year-old Louisiana resident. “Anything worse than what I already have is pretty scary.”
Caleb Richter, a 30-year-old Wisconsin native, told the AP that he was disappointed that elected officials seemed to be doing so little to help Americans deal with spiraling healthcare costs.
“It is the federal government’s job to provide a better way of life for its people,” he said. ”Right now, it just feels like they’re not trying.”
The AP-NORC poll was at least the third survey released this month showing deep anxiety of the affordability of healthcare, as a poll from Data for Progress and Groundwork Collaborative showed 72% of respondents were somewhat or very concerned about premiums rising.
The latest KFF Health Tracking Poll, which was released in early October, found that 78% of Americans want Congress to extend enhanced tax credits for people who buy their health insurance through exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), compared to just 22% of Americans who want to let the credits expire.
While Democrats have made it their directive to stop some of the worst Republican attacks on the ACA subsidies in order to forestall dire impacts on Americans families who will face enormous increases in their monthly premiums—hikes of 40% or more—or lose their coverage entirely due to inability to pay, some political observers question whether Democrats shouldn't just allow the GOP to have its way and let President Donald Trump and his party take the blame when the devastation materializes.
"Haven’t they read Machiavelli?" asked Les Leopold, executive director of the Labor Institute, in a Common Dreams op-ed published Tuesday. "It would damage Republicans if premiums shot up dramatically for millions of voters because of Trump’s so-called 'big, beautiful bill.' Why save the Republicans from themselves, when it would soon be obvious to all that the GOP stole the premium subsidies to give more money to billionaires?"
Still, this does not seem to be the calculation of most Democrats or progressive lawmakers like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) who have railed against the damage Republicans are threatening to unleash when it comes to healthcare costs.
The expiring ACA subsidies aren’t the only threat to Americans’ healthcare, as Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act cut spending on Medicaid by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade, which the Congressional Budget Office estimated would result in more than 10 million people, among the nation’s poorest, losing their coverage.
