Trump Alone Can Fix the Obamacare Subsidies Crisis |
For months now, much of the drama in Congress has revolved around the year-end expiration of the “enhanced” Obamacare subsidies that were enacted by a Democratic Congress in 2021 and that roughly 24 million Americans rely on to pay their health-insurance premiums. Democrats universally want to just extend the subsidies but are open to some “reforms” that would modestly limit eligibility and ensure beneficiaries are real people and not scam artists. Republicans mostly want to kill the subsidies altogether or at least reject the 2021 “enhancement,” and many are motivated by their hatred of the whole Obamacare initiative. Some of them have an alternative vision of health care in which people take responsibility for themselves and rely less on government or on the kind of private health insurers that offer Obamacare policies. But they struggle to put this together into an “Obamacare replacement” plan anyone can understand or support. Other Republicans are just terrified by voter backlash if the subsidies expire and millions of people suddenly face thousands of dollars in higher premiums or out-of-pocket expenses.
So just two weeks before the Obamacare........