Richmond Democrat Jennifer McClellan is trying to keep busy as Speaker Mike Johnson keeps the House on extended holiday to prevent a vote on the release of the Epstein files.
McClellan took part in a healthcare roundtable on Tuesday in Richmond hosted by Protect Our Care Virginia, with the highlight being, the pending expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits that are going to send folks’ insurance premiums through the roof.
Senate Democrats have refused to sign on to a continuing resolution that would fund the federal government by codifying the massive cuts to healthcare passed by MAGAs in July.
ICYMI
Republicans could easily pass the CR on their own by foregoing the need to have 60 votes under the arcane filibuster rule, but they really want Democrats to take the bait and agree to the healthcare cuts, so that the cuts aren’t an issue in the 2026 midterms.
Politics is stupid.
In the meantime, estimates are that more than 100,000 Virginians are going to drop out of the Virginia Marketplace if the ACA tax credits expire, which affects them, first and foremost, and then raises premiums for those who remain in the poll.
“People are already starting to get their notices of what their healthcare premiums are going to be. We know that in some cases, based on analysis from KFF, those premiums could jump as much as 114 percent. And when you can’t afford health insurance in the midst of an affordability crisis, a lot of people are going to have to make very tough decisions between paying that premium or paying the rest of your bills and feeding your families,” McClellan said.
The pressure will be on state legislators to try to make up the difference, but that won’t be easy – it would cost Virginia $230 million to replicate the ACA subsidies at the state level, said Freddy Mejia, the policy director at The Commonwealth Institute.
“The end of enhanced Premium Tax Credits will lead to thousands of families losing access to subsidies that made coverage more affordable,” Mejia said. “This will lead to countless conversations and tough decisions over dinner tables across Virginia about whether to pay for healthcare or to use that money for other essentials that are going up in price. There are estimates that over 100,000 people in Virginia are expected to lose ACA Marketplace coverage due to the end of enhanced credits, and about 50,000 of those will remain uninsured. And that’s just at the top of this year.”
How that translates to real life:
“Breast cancer screenings, colon cancer screenings, cervical cancer screenings drop off when people are uninsured,” said Dr. Patricia Cook, chief medical officer at Daily Planet, a Richmond community health center.
“That means they present with those cancers at later stages that are harder to treat, more expensive to treat, and devastating. Chronic disease management doesn’t happen. Blood pressures, blood sugars, viral loads all increase. Preventable things like heart attack, strokes, opportunistic infections land people in the hospital. By taking away ACA credits and by limiting people’s access to care, we are causing them to become uninsured, fall prey to their illnesses, and fall out of the workforce. And putting families one accident away from financial catastrophe.”
“What we’re seeing right now is a perfect storm of health care cuts that compound one another — reductions in Medicaid, the expiration of key tax credits, the defunding of Planned Parenthood, and attacks on the Title X family-planning program,” said Jamie Lockhart, the executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia. “Each of these actions alone would harm patients, but together they represent an unprecedented attack on our public-health infrastructure. By defunding Planned Parenthood from Medicaid, they are trying to block 1.1 million patients from using their insurance for birth control, for STI testing, cancer screenings and wellness visits, and then cuts to the Title X program mean fewer clinics, longer waits and more confusion for patients who depend on these services.”
Support AFP
Share
Chris Graham
