By Chris Deacon
Democrats are trying to protect the healthcare of the American people…and we are not going to support a spending bill that continues to gut the healthcare of every American…period, full stop….there is a Republican caused healthcare crisis…”
These words make for strong headlines and powerful talking points — but they don’t reflect what’s really happening. And while I understand the need for keeping the “messaging” simple, doing so in this manner does a disservice to the real issue at hand.
This isn’t a standoff over healthcare — it’s over health COVERAGE. Specifically, whether to continue the enhanced premium tax credits that subsidize the cost of private insurance plans sold on the ACA exchanges – plans that now carry record-high deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums, with the average silver plan deductible topping $5,000 and bronze plans exceeding $7,000, leaving many families paying thousands before coverage even begins.
In 2024, the largest exchange carriers — UnitedHealth, Elevance (Anthem), CVS/Aetna, Cigna, Centene, and Molina — collectively reported more than $30 billion in profit.
And because insurers earn revenue as a percentage of total claims, they make more when healthcare costs more.
In other words, the current structure is a massive wealth transfer from taxpayers to insurers, rewarding rising prices rather than controlling them.
And regardless of what side of the aisle you fall on this or any other subject, I think its a disservice to label this a “Republican-caused healthcare crisis.”
Both parties own the current quagmire we are in. For decades, they have sustained a system that subsidizes coverage without fixing the underlying cost drivers.
So what’s the path forward?
If we’re going to keep subsidizing coverage — and ensure hardworking Americans aren’t punished for a broken system not of their making— then those subsidies should be tied to transparency and structural reform that finally realign incentives so that we reward efficiency, not inflation.
We don’t have a healthcare crisis. We have a cost and accountability crisis — and until subsidies are tied to fixing that, taxpayers will keep paying more for the same broken system.
