{"id":1496198,"date":"2022-05-29T08:14:58","date_gmt":"2022-05-29T12:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1496198"},"modified":"2022-05-29T08:15:01","modified_gmt":"2022-05-29T12:15:01","slug":"obamacare-double-whammy-to-hit-before-midterms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/obamacare-double-whammy-to-hit-before-midterms\/","title":{"rendered":"ObamaCare \u201cDouble Whammy\u201d to Hit Before Midterms"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fobamacare-double-whammy-to-hit-before-midterms%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1496198&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A temporary COVID-19 relief program that aimed to lower <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-healthcare\">healthcare<\/a> premiums under the\u00a0Affordable Care Act is slated to expire and\u00a0voters would begin receiving notices just weeks before the midterms in November.<\/p>\n<p>Under the Biden administration-backed\u00a0American Rescue Plan, a temporary program was initiated to cut monthly healthcare premiums to make it more affordable for people purchasing\u00a0individual plans under the ACA, also known as Obamacare.<\/p>\n<p>However, according to analysts, the program is scheduled to expire and notices about premium increases will be sent out in October. The midterms\u00a0will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 8.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Congress lets the ACA premium help in the American Rescue Plan expire at the end of this year, middle-class people buying their own insurance would be hit hardest,\u201d Larry Levitt, vice president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/larry_levitt\/status\/1527652191489601536?s=20&#038;t=drHEJojAL9fTavlco58EnA\">said<\/a> in a Twitter post. \u201cThey could face a double whammy of inflation and the loss of premium assistance, costing thousands of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Elaborating, Levitt noted that \u201ca\u00a0middle-class couple of 50 year-olds making $75,000 got no premium help under the ACA because they made too much to qualify,\u201d but he added, \u201cunder the American Rescue Plan, they\u2019re getting an average premium subsidy of $8,304 per year, paying $6,375 themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile the 14.5 million ACA enrollees are a small share of the population, big premium increases from expiring subsidies could have outsized political implications,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe ACA is a signature program for Democrats. And, notices of premium hikes would come right before the election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sabrina Corlette, the co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University\u2019s McCourt School of Public Policy, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/05\/20\/democrats-affordable-care-act-biden-manchin-00033902\">told<\/a> Politico, \u201cIt\u2019s not a good look when you\u2019re going into a midterm election. There could be some really awful stories about people losing coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A few dozen House Democrats <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/document\/575457753\/Frontliner-Letter-on-Lowering-Health-Care-Costs-in-Reconciliation-5-23-22-10\">recently urged action<\/a> from Senate and House leaders to prevent the subsidies from expiring in the fall, with some saying it should be included in the reanimated \u201cBuild Back Better\u201d proposal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe cannot allow the progress we have made to be temporary,\u201d the Democrat lawmakers said. \u201cWe must make lower out-of-pocket costs and expanded coverage a permanent pillar of our health care system, and reconciliation is our only chance to get this done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But one of the top Republicans in the Senate said that the subsidies are a nonstarter, suggesting that reaching a deal on the Build Back Better program with the Obamacare provision won\u2019t happen. Since its inception about a decade ago, Republicans have been mostly opposed to the healthcare law, and in 2017, GOP lawmakers attempted to repeal and replace it without success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think this is our problem,\u201d Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of the GOP leadership in the upper chamber, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/dems-obamacare-aid-gop-free-money-stimulus-2022-5\">told<\/a> Business Insider.\u00a0\u201cAnytime you give people free money and you take it away, they would rather keep it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Should Democrats try to squeeze it into the Build Back Better proposal, it would likely require the support of centrist Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) or Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who opposed major portions of the previous iteration of the bill. Manchin and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsmax.com\/newsfront\/manchin-schumer-talks-spending\/2022\/05\/27\/id\/1071795\/\">reportedly<\/a> in talks about reviving the package.<\/p>\n<p>Blunt pointed to other cost increases that have occurred in the Biden era, saying 2022 midterm voters \u201care going to be much more motivated by higher prices at the gas pump and the grocery store than they are an additional subsidy on their health insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-jack-phillips\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2019\/06\/13\/Jack-Phillips.jpg\" alt=\"Jack Phillips\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"names\">\n<p>Breaking News Reporter<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter at The Epoch Times based in New York.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A temporary COVID-19 relief program that aimed to lower healthcare premiums under the\u00a0Affordable Care Act is slated to expire and\u00a0voters would begin receiving notices just weeks before the midterms in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1496198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1496198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1496198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1496198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1496198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}