CLEVELAND — When it comes to mid-term elections, big doors can swing on small hinges, leading to wave elections. Former Senator Sherrod Brown knows the impact of wave elections; he won his seat in the Senate in 2006, and he's hoping to do so again 20 years later. The issue then was the war in Iraq; the issue next year is shaping up to be healthcare. Brown is holding a round-table discussion in Cleveland Thursday with those impacted by rising healthcare costs.
"You're going to hear stories in here that are horrendous," said one of the participants whose Affordable Care Act healthcare premiums shot up as a result of the expiring tax credits.
Brown, who is challenging Republican Senator Jon Husted, said it mirrors what he's heard across the state.
"I was talking to a business owner, a one-person operation in Columbus and his insurance will, he said at least double his rates, and he'll go without insurance and that's not good for anybody and also raises rates for others," Brown said.
As Americans struggled during COVID in 2021, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan that included what were called enhanced premium tax credits that made insurance premiums more affordable for those covered under the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare. Those credits were extended the next year in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, but they are now set to expire at the end of the month.
That's something the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation estimates will cause the average out-of-pocket premium payment to more than double.
The Senate will likely vote next week on a Democratic proposal to extend the benefits, but that would need some Republican votes to pass. Ohio Senators Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted both told me they support an extension, but contingent upon reforms.
"We have to restore income caps. I don't think people who make $400,000 $500,000 $600,000 a year should get subsidies from the federal government. Number two is eliminate zero-dollar premiums," Moreno said.
That requires everyone to pay something towards their premiums, and third, he said, would be providing that subsidy, those tax credits not to the insurance companies but directly into the accounts of the consumer, almost like a Health Savings Account. Something Senator Husted supports as well.
"The insurance companies are making a ton of money at the expense of the taxpayer and the American consumer, and instead of sending the money to the insurance companies, send it to the individuals that way they can pay for either premiums or their deductible," Husted said.
Both support extending the benefits, though, until those terms can be worked out. Congress has two weeks left to strike a deal before breaking for the holidays.
Brown laid the predicament at the feet of Husted Thursday.
"Jon Husted's had eight chances to vote to put caps essentially on these insurance rates and has said no each time," said Brown. "Jon Husted and Congress chose to give billionaires tax cuts instead of doing the right thing, and it means that people's insurance rates are literally going to double or triple," Brown said.
Husted takes exception to that, arguing it was the Inflation Reduction Act that Brown voted for in 2022 that established the Dec. 31, 2025, expiration date.
"It's so disingenuous of him because he's the one that ended the subsidy," said Husted. "He's the one that voted for it to go away at the end of this year, and now he's saying 'gee Jon Husted fix the problem I created?' Well that's ridiculous," Husted said.
