ACA finger-pointing games begin
The crash is in front of us and 10 days away. People had to sign up for healthcare plans sooner than now. If they did not, they will be without. The same holds true if they did sign up and can no longer afford the plan. If people can not afford the ACA plans due to the lack of subsidies. Who owns it. One side says no subsidies and the other wants to extend the subsidies.
One of the biggest losers will be smaller hospitals. People with the ACA plans were able to pay them. Now those plans are gone and hospitals will still have to treat people.
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“Let the ACA finger-pointing games begin,” POLITICO
OBAMACARE BLAME GAME — Now that it’s clear Congress is at an impasse over what to do about spiking health care costs, interest groups on the left and right have a new goal: convincing voters the other side is to blame, POLITICO’s Amanda Chu reports.
The push includes advertising, polls and letter-writing campaigns from professional advocates skilled in giving cover to politicians on their side. It comes as the vast majority of Republicans on Capitol Hill have rejected Democrats’ bid to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies and as Democrats vote down GOP plans to make care more affordable that don’t involve the subsidies. That pattern continued on Wednesday, with House Republicans passing a health care bill that didn’t extend the subsidies and is expected to be dead on arrival in the Senate.
The stalemate means higher rates for millions of Americans starting in January.
“This is a fight right now. It’ll be a fight in 2026.” Joel White, a Republican health care strategist and head of an advocacy coalition called the Council for Affordable Health Coverage. White has testified against the Affordable Care Act at GOP hearings three times since November.
Pointing fingers: Groups on the left say it’s obvious who’s at fault and seek to keep fresh in the public’s mind that the GOP has the power to keep Obamacare rates low.
Chief communications officer at MoveOn.org Civic Action, Joel Payne: “You can’t fight against what people are experiencing. He said he expected the expiring subsidies to be a ‘galvanizing issue.’”
The GOP’s conservative allies nonetheless think they can convince voters they should pin rising health costs on Democrats.
“It’s turning out to be a more competitive race than Democrats imagined at the outset,” said Dean Clancy, senior health policy fellow at Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy organization, which has lobbied Congress to direct funding straight to patients instead of extending subsidies.
The stakes: The messaging battle over the expiring subsidies is an important early test of the two parties’ unity and momentum on health care — the issue has the potential to define the midterm campaign. The future of President Donald Trump’s policy agenda is at stake with Republicans defending narrow House and Senate majorities.
A recent POLITICO poll conducted by Public First found Americans across demographic groups rank the cost of living as the nation’s top problem, with nearly half of U.S. adults saying it was difficult to afford health care.
By Sophie Gardner and Kelly Hooper