Republicans lack plan to despite expiring ACA tax credits

Health care premiums are expected to rise 102% for Pennie customers once ACA tax credits expire at the end of the year.

With open enrollment ending in a little more than a week, Republicans in Congress are barreling towards a deadline without any concepts of a plan to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year. 

“ I don’t think that President Trump or the Republicans in Congress have ever coherently come up with a healthcare plan,” State Rep. Arvind Venkat said in an interview. 

“I think this whole debacle of saying ‘I’m gonna put a plan out there, but then I’m not gonna put a plan out there’ epitomizes that they have no idea how to make sure people have coverage, that the cost is not too much for individuals.”

Trump floated a two-year extension that would put an income limit on who is eligible to receive the health care subsidies and encourage Americans who purchase their health care through the ACA or state marketplaces to buy cheaper policies, according to Axios. 

It would also create health care savings accounts for those who downgrade their coverage.

“The big criticism of healthcare savings accounts is that they favor the well off and those with good health,” Venkat said. “Obviously, none of us know when we might have a healthcare crisis and those who already have preexisting conditions, which is obviously a huge number of people in the population, they would be kind of left in the cold.”

Democrats in the US House and Senate are pushing for a three-year extension with Republicans claiming such a proposal is dead on arrival.

Meanwhile, a Republican-backed plan has yet to materialize. 

“Donald Trump already showed us his true health care plan this summer when he kicked 15 million Americans off their health care to fund tax breaks for billionaires,” US House Rep. Brendan Boyle, Ranking Democrat on the US House Budget Committee, said in a statement.

“Any ‘plan’ short of simply extending the health care tax credits that are already saving Pennsylvanians money is unacceptable. I will continue fighting to stop Donald Trump from kicking hundreds of thousands of our neighbors off their health care.”

Close to 500,000 Pennsylvanians purchase their health care through Pennie, the commonwealth’s health care marketplace, and experts warn that up to 250,000 Pennie customers could lose their coverage once these tax credits expire. 

Pennie customers can expect a 102% increase in premiums once the new year begins. 

Venkat is the only emergency room physician serving in the Pennsylvania General Assembly and he warns that Trump’s initial proposal would undermine what the ACA was designed to push back against. 

“You might get worse insurance in terms of overall coverage and not have the dollars to pay for it,” Venkat said.

 ”The big premise behind the Affordable Care Act is that we do not want people to have junk insurance. That we want people to have insurance that covers what we would hope for in anybody’s healthcare, and that that cost is spread across the entire population.”

Update: This article was updated to reflect the correct title for US House Rep. Brendan Boyle’s position on the US House Budget Committee.