FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Valley lawmakers headed home for the holidays on Thursday, as millions of Californians prepare for significant increases in healthcare premiums.
“There’s an old saying, you can’t fill a broken bucket by pouring more water in it,” North Valley Republican Tom McClintock told Action News. He voted on Wednesday in favor of a GOP healthcare package aimed at lowering costs, but the plan does not extend the enhanced tax credits that many say are needed.
“You’ll still have subsidies for Obamacare, but you won’t have the enhanced subsidies that were put in during the COVID pandemic,” McClintock explained.
Many Californians are now bracing for the financial impact.
“On average, if the enhanced tax credits lapse, for people receiving them, the plan they’re in today will cost about twice as much,” Covered California’s Executive Director Jessica Altman said. She added that this could mean a “97 percent increase.” For example, a plan that currently costs $150 could soon spike to $300.
Altman expressed concern about affordability, saying, “We do expect some people to see these higher costs and find them unaffordable and maybe even go without health insurance coverage.”
Meanwhile, House Democrats rallied on the Capitol steps Thursday, pushing for a three-year extension of healthcare subsidies. They have forced a vote, but with the House out of session, it will not happen until mid-January—weeks after the credits expire.
“I’m not confident that, come late January, even if that bill passes the House, which it may, that it will ever see the light of day in the Republican majority here in the Senate,” U.S. Senator Adam Schiff told Action News.
Schiff acknowledged that the Affordable Care Act is not perfect and shared his own proposal: “I favor, frankly, expanding Medicare, letting people buy into Medicare if they choose at whatever age they are.”
With no solution likely before these subsidies lapse at the end of the year, consumers are now left to review their options.
“This is why we are a marketplace,” Altman said. “Most Covered California enrollees are enrolled in a plan where there are plans that cost less available to them where they live.”
https://abc30.com/post/californians-premiums-could-spike-lawmakers-head-home-holidays/18298982/
