What's at Stake in the Shutdown Fight? Affordable Healthcare

Healthcare access in this country is in grave danger —and your wallet could be, too. Those facts are key to understanding the latest government shutdown.

“My kids have healthcare through Medicaid—which is especially important for my daughter with autism,” Alexis Cortes, a mom of four, told me. But “the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ calls for massive cuts to Medicaid, food assistance, and early childhood education programs,” she warns.

Also at issue are the 24 million Americans who benefit from the soon-to-expire tax credits that help them afford their health coverage on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace. When Republicans passed their tax cuts for billionaires and corporations in this summer’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, they intentionally left out renewing this credit that helps regular people afford healthcare.

As a result, according to KFF Health, not only could the 24 million ACA users see a doubling of their premium costs, but most Americans could see their premiums rise if this tax credit isn’t renewed.

The 80% of us who object to defunding our families and communities just so the rich can get richer need to make our voices heard.

Coupled with the over $1 trillion that the GOP bill gutted from Medicaid in order to fund those massive tax giveaways to billionaires, Americans are about to experience significant reductions in their access to health coverage, long-term care, nursing home care, and hospital care, especially in rural areas.

This is what’s at stake with the current government shutdown on Capitol Hill.

The Republican majority is trying to pass a stop-gap spending measure that sustains President Donald Trump’s mass firings of public servants, maintains his freeze on nearly half a trillion dollars meant for our communities, and keeps their cuts to everything from education to healthcare, food assistance, student loans, and even cancer research.

Some lawmakers want to stop this calamity from happening.

The Democrats have a counterproposal to fund the government that restores this healthcare funding, keeps costs under control for families already grappling with high costs of living, and prohibits illegally freezing appropriated funds. But with Republican majorities in the House and Senate, the Democrats’ proposal hasn’t been able to pass.

Nearly 80% of Americans—including most Trump supporters—agree with Alexis, telling pollsters they want lawmakers to restore those expiring ACA credits.

Unfortunately, President Trump is disingenuously claiming that Democrats aren’t agreeing to the massive healthcare cuts because they want to spend taxpayer dollars on undocumented immigrants instead.

This is untrue. Undocumented immigrants pay taxes but aren’t allowed to get government healthcare benefits. Period. The president and his allies are telling this lie in an effort to gut your healthcare.

Trump is also vowing to use the government shutdown as an opportunity to enact mass federal worker firings and to deny funds to states that voted against him. That means “blue states”—including plenty of red and purple communities inside them—are being denied funds for projects like building roads and bridges as a form of punishment.

Trump also instructed that the email signatures of government employees blame Democrats for the government shutdown. The administration has posted similar false and partisan messages on some executive branch agency websites.

Together, these measures may violate at least four federal laws against misappropriating or freezing federal funds, or spending them on partisan activity—including the Anti-Deficiency Act, the Hatch Act, the Anti-Lobbying Act, and the Impoundment Control Act.

Meanwhile, families like Alexis’s are scared and struggling, wondering how they will be able to care for their families when their health coverage vanishes or becomes unaffordable.

The 80% of us who object to defunding our families and communities just so the rich can get richer need to make our voices heard. The sooner we do, the sooner the government can reopen and our families can receive the care and services we need.