CLEVELAND — As the nation's second-longest Federal government shutdown continues into its fourth week, local Democratic leaders gathered in Cleveland on Wednesday with health care advocates to express their concerns over cuts at the center of the standoff. Democrats want Republicans to restore health care cuts, including the restoration of the Enhanced Premium Tax Credits, before they'll support reopening the government.
"The Trump Administration is creating a health care crisis in Northeast Ohio," said Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH). "Cuts to the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid are a one-two punch that is going to punish everyday people."
The non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation, which researches U.S. and global health policy, estimates that more than half a million Ohioans benefit from the enhanced credits, with nearly 56,000 of these benefits in Cuyahoga County. Folks like Anne Griffith of University Heights, who retired earlier this year to care for an aging parent and gets her health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
"I was able to get a plan that meets my needs, now with this stipend potentially going away, my rates could go from $200-something a month out of pocket to $1,200 a month," she said. "I'm unemployed, my spouse is retired, that's a ridiculous amount of money that will greatly impact myself, my family, my ability to do what I need to do to care for my parents."
Aimee Lee of Lyndhurst is right there with her. As a self-employed individual, she has relied on the marketplace for her insurance for a decade now. She said she's afraid to find out how much her premiums will increase.
"I have been so scared, like that's the stress that ever since the bill came down, it's like I don't know. It's going to be bad, that's all I know," she said.
On average, the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates rates in Brown's 11th Congressional District will go up 237%.
"We ran the numbers for a typical family in my district," said Brown. "A family of four in Cleveland, two adults in their 40s and two kids ages 8 and 10, with a household income of $56,000 a year. Their premiums are going to double... from $2,400 a year to $4,800."
Democrats are withholding support for reopening the government until they get the cuts to the credits and to Medicaid restored. Republicans want Democrats to sign off on a clean funding bill, something Democrats have agreed to several times in the past.
"What we're doing is taking last year's budget, which every Democrat voted for, that they then extended in March and voted to extend to September," Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) told News 5.
Ahead of Wednesday's news conference, we asked Moreno if the Democrats were to do that, if he would be open to talks about restoring the ACA Tax Credits.
"Look, just to be clear what it is that we're talking about, we're talking about COVID subsidies that were put in place for one year during COVID. They blew past the income cap. Then, in '22, the Democrats, by themselves, extended that for three more years, again, no income cap, zero-dollar premiums. So you could literally have millionaires that were signed up for these plans," said Moreno. "This is a massive giveaway to insurance companies.
"So would I vote for a continued giveaway to insurance companies and corrupt insurance brokers? Absolutely not."
When asked about that on Wednesday, Brown told News 5 that the 43,000 people in her district who rely on the tax credits can't afford to let them expire.
"This isn't about COVID, this is about saving lives and continuing the success under these plans that have been demonstrated," she said. "They have the house, the senate and the presidency, this is on them."
Dr. Arthur Lavin, co-chair of Doctors Organized for Healthcare Solutions, adds that the keyword in the debate is the expiration of these credits.
"The question is, do we want the tax cut to expire or people to expire? Someone's going to expire, and we found a path in this bill to help 24 million people," he said of the number of people now covered under the ACA. "Now that we found that path, can the American public really support cutting off healthcare to 24 million? That's the expiration that the doctors are concerned about."
