Democrats cast government shutdown as a health care showdown : NPR

Clock in Disconnection of the federal governmentHulio Fuentes, stood in steps from the Capitol of the United States in order to convey an urgent message about the Latin American vote, which helped the Republican Party to stand on power last year.

These votes, as he warned, are at risk if the Congress does not accept the law on maintaining low bonuses according to the plans of the market for affordable medical services about 4.7 million people living in his native state of Florida, who are enrolled in the coating.

“Latin American voters helped to return Donald Trump to the White House,” said Fuentes, General Director of the state of Florida of the state of Latin American. “Republican leaders would have acted correctly with their voters in order to maintain the coating affordable, and they will remember that they went to intermediate services.”

In no more than a month, many Americans chose a medical insurance plan next year, Democrats in Congress Holding state funding In order to put pressure on the Republicans to extend billions of dollars in federal tax benefits, which in recent years have significantly reduced insurance premiums and contributed to the record low indicators of undigested Americans.

Democrats see in opposition to high rates a chance to talk about affordable medical care, since millions of Americans, including those that were enrolled in the insurance coating through the workplace or Medicare, will slip out for higher costs next year. Party leaders, hoping to return support from some supporters of the working class who left them, used the moment to remind voters of recent reductions, the Republicans approved some health care programs.

Republicans externally exude confidence that this approach will not find traction, recalling the public, that the Democrats forced the shutdown. But New analysis of KFF It shows that 80% of all premium tax benefits benefited the benefits of Trump enlisted in the States.

Open registration for 2026

Closing coincides with the open season of registrationSince insurers are preparing to send notifications about the disclosure of premium bets next year for about 24 million people registered in the ACA coating. It is expected that the average credit will pay More than doubled If tax benefits remain. The insurers also said that they would have to sharply increase the price of premiums, because more healthy people refused the insurance coverage, since it will become more expensive, leaving the larger Americans pool – and less money to cover them.

“Over the next few days, you will see that more than 20 million Americans are experiencing dramatically increasing insurance premiums, surcharges and franchises from the republican’s reluctance to expand the tax benefits of the law on affordable medical care,” said the leader of the house of Hakim Jeffris at Thursday steps at Thursday.

Open registration in most states begins on November 1. Some insurers and exchanges postponed the sending of notifications describing premium bets in detail for the next year, because they are waiting to see that they are unfolding in Washington. For example, Covered California, the state insurance market, plans to send notifications by mail more than millions of credits later than usual this year, October 15.

From his house in Richmond, Virginia, 31-year-old Natalie Tayer is looking forward to the arrival of his notification. She checks the state website daily to see whether new tariffs were published on her insurance plan.

Tayer relies on the market for more than a year, while it has been working in a single working day in a small local video company and receives a master's degree to become a school consultant. Tax benefits help cover $ 255 of its monthly bonus, which amounted to up to $ 53. Since it, as a rule, is healthy if the validity period expires, and its bonuses are significantly increased, it can even reduce the coating.

“I may have to go through without medical insurance, and perhaps I will have to rely on hope,” Tayer said.

Nevertheless, the desire of the Democrats in the Center is available for the availability of healthcare with many inconvenient realities of the closure of the federal government, which will leave millions of federal workers without salaries, prevents some functions of public health agencies and threatens food payments for low -income mothers, among other consequences.

This is not the first closure of medical care

ACA, however, was Political output point since 2010When the Republicans fought against the adoption of sign legislation on healthcare. A wave of republican victories in Congress soon followed this battle and Courage state closure in 2013When the Republican Party tried to go around the program. Party leaders again tried to cancel it in 2017 To fulfill the promise of Trump's campaign.

The last clash of billions of dollars in tax benefits that democrats issued during the Covid-19 pandemic to increase enrollment in the ACA boil for several months. Democrats who wrote the initial legislation introduced, and then expanding them, established expanded tax benefits to expire at the end of this year. This summer, even some Republicans began to warn that to allow these tax benefits to cause damage when the republican questionnaires Tony Fabrizio and Bob Ward released a note in which a warning about the extension of loans could matter in the intermediate elections next year.

The expansion of ACA tax benefits, which reduced monthly insurance contributions to $ 0 or $ 10 for poorer and limited the amount, average Americans paid only by 8.5% of their income is also a popular step among many Americans.