As politicians deadlock in Washington, Kara Farley, who has a malignant melanoma and is married to a man with Type 1 diabetes, is scared she won’t be able to find the low-cost health insurance they need for their treatment.
“I don’t know where we will find the money in our budget,” she said about the loss of pandemic-era subsidies through the Affordable Care Act, informally known as Obamacare. “I don’t want to be in a position where we are trying to decide if I can get treatment or my husband does.”
Those subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year, an issue that is at the center of the ongoing government shutdown that has now dragged into a new month.
Farley, of Boynton Beach, was diagnosed many years ago in an emergency room. She had treatment without insurance, which sent her into medical debt for years. Her husband suffers from seizures and also spent time in the emergency room with hypoglycemic episodes.
The subsidies have “made an everlasting difference for us,” she said at a Democratic Party news conference in Miami on Monday. “Losing this coverage or paying double would be devastating.”
Spotlighting stories like Farley’s, Florida Democrats are ratcheting up pressure on Republicans over the higher cost of Obamacare plans. Some people are seeing their premiums double, if not triple or more. Much of that increase is being driven by the expiration of enhanced subsidies enacted in 2021 during former President Joe Biden’s administration.
“I think the biggest thing people are seeing right now is the sticker shock from the premiums because Congress has extended the subsidy enhancements,” said Louise Norris, a health policy analyst with healthinsurance.org. “They could still do something at the end of the year, but as of right now when open enrollment is getting underway, the prices people are seeing in their marketplace account reflect the fact that those subsidy enhancements are expiring.”
“In Fort Lauderdale, if you’re a 40-year-old earning $40,000 a year, you can get a plan this year for as low as $34 a month. Next year, your lowest cost is $110, so basically triple,” Norris said. “And it’s even worse if you are a 60-year-old making $63,000 a year; this year you can get a plan for $191 a month — next year it’s $1,064 a month.”
The issue will have an outsized impact on Florida, which has about 4.7 million Obamacare enrollees. That’s more than any other state. It’s estimated that as many as a third of Floridians with these plans may drop their coverage because of the rising costs, sending the state’s uninsured rate soaring.
On Monday, U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Tina Smith of Minnesota, and Chris Murphy of Connecticut took part in a roundtable discussion in Miami with those directly affected by the impending expiration of tax credits. Over 1 million people in Miami are enrolled in ACA plans.
“We’re here in Miami-Dade County because you are ground zero for absorbing the pain from the Republican cuts,” Warren said. “You are the ones who will lose more people off healthcare altogether and more people who will see their premiums go up than any place else in the country.”
‘Huge sticker shock’: Floridians get first look at Obamacare price hikes
Warren said even people who don’t have ACA insurance coverage will feel the effect. “Once you get this kind of pain pushed into the system, it will touch everyone,” she said. “Everyone who goes to the emergency room and discovers the lines are longer because people who would have taken the baby to the doctor’s offices to have the fever checked out are now in the emergency room because they no longer have health insurance coverage.”
Warren, Smith, Murphy and other Democrats are pushing for the subsidies to be extended as part of a deal to reopen the government.
It would cost about $23 billion to extend the subsidies for a year, or $350 billion over the next decade, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.
Republican leaders have insisted they’ll negotiate only after the government is reopened. In a “60 Minutes” interview, President Donald Trump said he won’t be “extorted” by Democratic demands for negotiations to extend subsidies.
Asked for the Republican plan for lowering health care costs, Evan Power, chairman of the Florida GOP, called Obamacare “broken” but did not offer specific details of his desired policy changes.
“It’s time for the Democrats to reopen government so we can have a discussion about replacing their failed health care plans,” he said.
Other Republicans, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, have argued the country needs to rethink insurance policies. Speaking at an event last month, DeSantis, for example, said he thinks people 50 years and younger would benefit from “a catastrophic plan that is affordable” rather than more comprehensive coverage.
But Florida Democrats want the subsidies that make insurance more affordable for so many state residents to continue. To make their case, and up the pressure on the GOP, they plan to deploy mobile billboards in Miami-Dade, Osceola and Duval counties with the message, “Groceries or medicine? You shouldn’t have to choose.”
Skylar Trujillo, a Florida mother with breast cancer, said she hopes a solution is found soon. With the subsidies, she had been able to secure coverage for $14 a month.
“That $14 premium is saving my life,” said Trujillo, a Spring Hill mother of four who was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. “For my premium to go up … to even $50 a month, it would potentially push my family over a financial cliff. I will have to choose between continuing my care, paying my rent and feeding my children.”
She is unable to work because of her debilitating treatment and is also facing the loss of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, or food stamps, during the shutdown.
“Cancer is not red or blue,” she said. “It is not Republican or Democratic. Anybody is one diagnosis away from cancer.”