San Diego congressional Democrats say their constituents are looking at huge increases to their Affordable Care Act healthcare plan premiums if federal tax credits are not extended.
Extending these credits was a top priority for Democrats during the government shutdown. When a funding bill passed the Senate without extending the tax credits, many Democrats in the House were incensed.
“The Republicans turned down what I thought was a reasonable, good faith offer of a one year extension of the ACA credits,” Rep. Mike Levin said. “And then eight Democratic senators decided to undercut the weeks and weeks of fighting, to, basically, give the Republicans everything they wanted.”
Levin represents California’s 49th district, which covers San Diego County’s north coast. He said he’s spoken with constituents who are angry about the development and tell him their healthcare bills are going to double or even triple without those tax credits.
“My constituents are getting letters from Covered California indicating the premiums are going to be rising, in some cases by tens of thousands of dollars per year,” Levin said.
Covered California is the state’s health care exchange that offers Affordable Care Act plans.
Senate Republicans have agreed to hold a vote on extending the tax credits next month, but Levin doesn’t think it will get the 60 votes needed to pass.
Rep. Scott Peters voted against the funding bill when it came to a vote in the House, but said he’s glad people will be receiving the SNAP benefits the Trump administration sued to pause during the shutdown.
“You have people on food assistance who were potentially going to face really severe hunger issues and, so we avoided that,” Peters said.
In San Diego, roughly 400,000 people rely on SNAP to eat.
Peters represents California’s 50th district, which stretches from Coronado to parts of North County. He said that Republicans will have to answer to angry constituents over the health care credits.
“They're going to hear from people in January — actually going to see, not just letters telling them — that their bills are going up,” Peters said.
He added that the price increases will be “astoundingly higher.”
If the credits aren’t extended, according to Levin, millions of people would opt out of insurance plans, which would raise costs for everyone.
“The Republican plan, to the extent that I've seen one, is put everybody in high deductible health plans, junk plans, and have huge out of pocket costs,” Levin said. “And that really isn't a solution. It's a solution for the health care companies, the insurance industry. But the average person gets a huge bill.”
Since the passage of the funding bill, Senate Republicans have floated adding conditions, like tougher abortion restrictions, to any bill extending the premium tax credits.
Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, who represents California’s 48th district, did not respond to a request for comment.
“Congressman Issa voted to fully fund the government and opposed every effort by the Democrats to shut it down and keep it closed. He’s ready to vote the same way ASAP,” read a statement from Issa’s office.
