In just over three weeks, health care premiums will skyrocket for 22 million Americans by an average of 114% if Republicans refuse to extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits. Premiums have already climbed because Republicans continue to kick the can down the road. 

Republicans can’t agree on how to avert the looming health care crisis. And rather than work with Democrats on a common-sense, clean extension of the ACA tax credits, Republicans are proposing years-old plans that experts have warned will raise premiums for Americans and throw the health care market into a tailspin. Meanwhile, nearly 75% of Americans support extending the ACA subsidies, including a majority of Republicans. 

In response, DNC Chair Ken Martin released the following statement: 

“The reality is that Donald Trump and the Republicans have no moral problem forcing Americans to choose between paying for food, housing, or health care. First, they gutted Medicaid, nursing homes, and rural hospitals all to hand out massive tax cuts to the rich. Now they’re causing health care costs to double for millions of families, farmers, and small business owners. Democrats have a real proposal to fix this health care emergency, and we urge Republicans to come to the table and get it done. Stop screwing around.”

Republicans’ Health Care Plan Will Shift Costs to Patients and Wreck the Insurance Market: 

• Rather than extending the ACA tax subsidies, the GOP proposal reroutes federal funding to individual Health Savings Accounts, which will not even come close to offsetting the massive premium increases that patients will see if the tax credits expire. 
• These funds can only be used under plans with the highest deductibles and lowest-quality coverage. 
• Under one of these plans, the deductible is nearly $7,500 — five to seven times larger than the initial HSA deposit amount.
• Republicans’ HSA-centered proposals will disproportionately benefit higher-income families, while leaving the most vulnerable patients at risk of sky-high out-of-pocket costs or losing coverage altogether.

Republicans Don’t Have a Health Care Plan That Will Lower Prices:

• Republicans have been unable to produce a single health care plan that will meaningfully lower insurance premium costs.
• Republicans have expressed skepticism about their current proposal, with one senator saying, “It doesn’t deal with premiums, and it doesn’t deal with the extension [of the subsidies], which is the current crisis.”
• Instead, Republicans are recycling previously failed ideas, as numerous members lamented that GOP leaders have no real plan to address health care costs, saying that Republicans “wasted so much time” and “nothing is coming together.” 

Donald Trump is Missing in Action on Health Care: 

• In a recent interview with POLITICO, when asked if he would extend the expiring tax credits, Trump simply said, “I don’t know.” 
• Trump has refused to offer a single health care proposal, instead choosing to protect his tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations. 

Refusing to Extend the ACA Tax Credits Will Have Dire Consequences For Millions of Americans: 

• Experts have warned that “state economies would shrink by $40.7 billion in 2026, roughly 339,000 jobs would be lost, and state and local tax revenues would be reduced by $2.5 billion” if the ACA tax credits are not extended.
• Reminder: The GOP’s billionaire-first tax cut costs more than 10 TIMES as much as it would to extend ACA credits.