One of the worst aspects of a massive federal government bureaucracy is that so many of its actions on incredibly consequential matters can fly under the radar. Such is the case with the Biden administration’s recent attack on healthcare.
Since President Biden took office, a great deal of public attention has been on major issues facing the public, such as the southern border, enhanced COVID-19 regulations, and foreign policy. Yet, one of the biggest overhauls to our country is happening right under our noses with minimal mention from the corporate news media.
This month, the Democrats in the House and Senate have quietly begun to unroll the Biden administration’s scheme to upend your healthcare and, in doing so, have made the biggest changes to the Affordable Care Act since its passage just in time for the law’s 11th anniversary.
On top of all the pork in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, the Democrats inserted expansions to the Affordable Care Act, funds for states to expand their Medicaid programs, and crony capitalist schemes. None of which will do anything to fix the underlying problems with our healthcare system that led to these Band-Aid fixes to begin with.
Democrats’ so-called “American Rescue Plan” includes three major problems for your healthcare: expanding ACA subsidies, expanding Medicare, and fully covering COBRA costs. Make no mistake: These provisions will do far more harm than good by expanding the flaws of a broken healthcare system and sticking consumers and future generations with the bill.
ACA subsidies, meant to lower the cost of health insurance for some, were initially reserved for people who earned less than 400% of the federal poverty level. But even with this cap in place, regulations caused premiums to skyrocket from 2013 to 2017 and hiked up average monthly premiums by about 60%.
Democrats have now eliminated the income cap that limits who is eligible for ACA subsidies, which translates to government dependence for at least 11 million people. Though the subsidy expansions are “temporary” under the bill and expire after two years, we know nothing in government, especially in healthcare, is “temporary.” The big winners here are not the people, patients, or doctors but rather the crony capitalists who line their pockets with bad healthcare policy. And the price tag for doing so? The expanded tax credits alone are slated to increase federal deficits by about $34 billion over 10 years.
Medicaid expansion is yet another way Democrats’ plan will seek to create more dependence on government. In another “temporary” two-year expansion, Democrats would stick taxpayers with the cost of both existing Medicaid enrollees and the full cost of expanding Medicaid. While this policy is aimed at enticing states that haven’t yet expanded, such as Texas, to do so now, this is really a way to drive people into a deficient, government-run healthcare model by making private insurance plans even more expensive for able-bodied adults.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch or, despite the wishful thinking of many in our political sphere, free healthcare. Someone else has to pay for it. Under Democrats’ plan, that “someone else” will be the health insurance consumers who manage to stay off the government dole. Democrats’ plan also limits the amount households pay for healthcare to no more than 8.5% of income and increases subsidies for lower-income consumers. This may sound nice, but it won’t change the actual cost of coverage; it merely shifts the burden to those who choose not to pay for an Obamacare plan or who do not qualify.
And if that weren’t bad enough, Democrats’ healthcare plan also forces the taxpayer to foot the bill for the job-destroying tyranny of state and local COVID lockdowns. The “Rescue Plan” provides tax-free, 100% cost coverage for COBRA premiums for 6 months for anyone who has involuntarily lost their job or received a reduction in hours — a lot of which is being driven by long delays in reopening. So instead of making governors and local businesses deal with the natural backlash of their politicized pandemic policies, Democrats are providing yet another federal cash infusion to cushion the blow.
While the new changes will be sold as a way to “expand coverage,” they will actually force millions more to depend on government while keeping the private market from competing to bring costs down. This will only soften the ground for renewed calls for socialized medicine in the future, bringing us just one step closer to “Medicare for all.”
Eleven years ago, the ACA took a troubled but competition-driven and care-focused healthcare system and further poisoned it with an injection of government bureaucracy and crony capitalism. But Obamacare was never really the core of our healthcare problem; the entire rigged healthcare system was and still is.
Real, patient-centered reforms are those that put the people first. For example, my Personalize Care Act would supersede COBRA and the Democrats’ full coverage by allowing employers to contribute to a health savings account for their employees, still receiving a tax benefit while allowing their employees to choose and keep the healthcare options that best fit their needs. People deserve real reforms, not policies that further break the system, bloat government payrolls, and pave the way for socialized medicine.
Chip Roy represents Texas’s 21st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is the chairman of the Republican Study Committee Health Care Task Force.
