Congressional leaders are continuing to search for a plan forward with health care subsidies set to expire on December 31 and a local Congressional member is trying to get a bipartisan group together to come up with a solution.
With COVID-era subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, 4.7 million Florida policyholders with insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace could see their plans double or triple next year.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
Congressman Aaron Bean (R-FL 6th District) argued the subsidies were never meant to be permanent, and have simply shifted the cost burden from policyholders to taxpayers.
“Health care has been a driver of, well, it’s just run ahead of inflation. I believe part of that inflation is because government just continues to dump more and more money in,” Bean said.
Bean is trying to put together a bipartisan coalition to come up with ways of lowering the cost of health care.
Bean said he is working on several possible options including health savings plans, allowing for more companies to compete across state lines and requiring more pricing transparency.
[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]
“We think there’s buy-in for that. It’s just a start though. This debate is going to go well into next year, but we’ve got to do better than what we have right now, which is just this Obamacare,” Bean said. ”It seems like it’s the only choice out there and Americans want more than just that. They want more choice and we have to deliver more competition if we’re going to effect these ever-rising health care premiums.”
But Lorelei Salas, a former Supervision Director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, warned those policy proposals would do little to soften the sticker shock many Americans will soon see on their monthly bills.
“It just seems really unlikely that we’re gonna get the parties together to resolve things in time for people not to see this hit their budgets,” Salas said.
[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
And without an extension of the subsidies, the result could be as many as four million Americans dropping their health plans entirely by the end of next year.
Salas said that would have major impacts throughout the entire health insurance marketplace.
“When you have the healthier people from your pool leave the marketplace, you have sicker people, people who have a lot of medical conditions, that is also going to drive up the premiums for those who stay in the exchange. And that’s where we are,” Salas said.
Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.