It’s Tuesday, April 7, and welcome back to another edition of the Keystone Labor Report. 

I hope everyone was able to enjoy their holiday weekend. I don’t know about you, but I am still in recovery mode following a nice and extended weekend.

In today’s edition, we’re going to take a look at how the Republican Party’s decision to allow important health care subsidies to expire at the end of last year is affecting Pennsylvania residents, and how Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity is attaching herself to MAGA world as she runs against Gov. Josh Shapiro this year’s gubernatorial election. 

(Sean Kitchen / The Keystone)

More than 120,000 Pennsylvanians have dropped their health care coverage through Pennie, the commonwealth’s official healthcare market place. 

This comes after Republican lawmakers in the US House and Senate refused to extend Affordable Healthcare Act subsidies that expired at the end of last year. 

Without the ACA tax credits, Pennie officials warned that health care premiums would increase by 102% and hit rural counties the hardest. Experts believe that more Pennie customers will continue to drop their coverage the longer Congress goes without passing any tax credits. 

“The story isn’t over,” said Joanna Rosenhein, director of campaigns at the Pennsylvania Health Access Network. “We’re going to continue seeing people drop coverage and it’s really important for us to understand why that’s happening.”

(Sean Kitchen / The Keystone)

Gas prices across Pennsylvania continue to soar a little over one month into President Donald Trump’s unprovoked war with Iran, and Democrats are using this as an opportunity to hammer Republicans on affordability. 

According to the Automobile Association of America (AAA), gas prices are over $4.22 per gallon, which is more than $1 dollar per gallon since the war started. On Monday, former WGAL TV anchor Janelle Stelson held a press conference across from a Harrisburg-area gas station going after US House Rep. Scott Perry’s support for the Iran war. 

“ When you’re paying $4 or more to fill up your tank, you feel it. You feel it on the drive to work . You feel it when the school bus route gets cut and you have to drive your children yourself. You feel it when you have to think twice about visiting your parents in York or driving to a job site in Dauphin County,” Stelson said. 

“Perry is supporting a war in Iran that is costing us, the taxpayers, $1 billion a day. $1 billion a day. And he’s risking American lives.”

(Sean Kitchen / The Keystone)

Remember when times were normal and former State Sen. Scott Wagner, who famously crashed out on Facebook live and threatened to stomp on Gov. Tom Wolf’s face with golf spikes, seemed like a palatable Republican candidate for governor? Well, long gone are those days.

Last month, Republican Treasurer Stacy Garrity held a fundraiser at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, and it offers a glimpse into the parts of MAGA world that she is associating herself with in her race against Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Two attendees included a pardoned Jan 6th participant who used moonlight as an underwear model and worked for an organization that made millions of dollars off of fake medical advice during the COVID pandemic and a former associate of Jack Abramoff, a famous lobbyist who went to prison in the 2000s.