Senate Democrats are promising to battle Republicans by being “relentless” on “who exactly is to blame” for Obamacare price increases ahead of November’s midterm elections.
“Let me be clear: These increases in healthcare costs for families are a symptom of Republican sabotage,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a press conference Tuesday. “They didn’t happen on their own, they wouldn’t have happened … if not for Republican sabotage.”
Maryland’s Obamacare insurers are asking for a 30 percent average rate increase for 2019, with some plans seeking hikes as high as 91 percent, and most of Virginia’s Obamacare insurers are proposing double-digit rate hikes. In Virginia, Group Hospitalization and Medical Services has the biggest proposed increase with 64 percent, and Piedmont Community Healthcare came in second, with about a 46 percent increase.
State officials do not have to accept the proposals, and Maryland is considering a reinsurance fund that would help lower prices, but Democrats signaled they would draw attention to headlines about the rate increases as they roll in.
“President Trump and the Republicans promised America a cheaper and better healthcare system. The truth? President Trump has not delivered but made the system worse,” Schumer said.
Multiple factors led to higher prices for the roughly 6 percent of the population who buy Obamacare plans, who include middle-income people who do not receive healthcare coverage through a government program, such as Medicare, or through a job.
The rates began rising before Trump’s election as too few healthy enrollees entered the exchanges, which resulted in higher prices to pay for medical expenses. Late last year, Republicans repealed the fine for going uninsured, which will go into effect in 2019, and Trump ended payments to insurers known as cost-sharing reduction subsidies. Taken together, those factors are estimated to contribute to a roughly 30 percent average rise in premiums.
The higher prices won’t be felt by everyone in the exchanges, however. Most people who buy coverage on the exchanges receive federal subsidies that blunt the costs of coverage. The price increases will be most felt most heavily by people making above roughly $48,240 in gross income, the cut-off amount at which people don’t receive government help.
In recent months, Democrats and Republicans in the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee arrived at a deal that would have lowered premiums, but later became split over whether federal funds could pay for plans that also covered abortions. Though an effort was made to include it in the long-term spending deal, the parties reached an impasse and no bill passed.
Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the HELP Committee, drew attention to the bill during Tuesday’s press conference, saying Republicans “blocked bipartisan legislation that could have lowered families’ premiums.”
Asked about the press conference, a senior Republican aide pointed the finger at Democrats, suggesting that the party had opposed the bipartisan bill because they planned to use the rate increases as a political attack.
“Democrats blocked a Republican proposal to lower rates next year by as much as 40 percent,” said a GOP Senate aide. HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander “held four bipartisan hearings and negotiated a package for seven months that would have lowered premiums and returned power to the states, but when it came time to put it in the omnibus in March, Democrats chose to block it because they’d rather try to shift blame to Republicans for ongoing rate hikes than help Americans trapped in Obamacare’s failing marketplaces.”
