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Susie Lee is leading the charge to save Nevadans from skyrocketing health care premiums next year, the Las Vegas Sun reports.
If Congress fails to act, more than 22 million Americans could see their costs spike as much as 50 percent next year. For the roughly 100,000 Nevadans on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace, that could mean paying thousands more or losing health insurance altogether.
Skyrocketing health care premiums would be just the latest pain D.C. Republicans inflict on hardworking Nevada families. Nearly 68,000 Nevadans are projected to lose Medicaid coverage, multiple Nevada hospitals could close, and nearly 133,000 Nevadans could go hungry – all because D.C. Republicans chose tax cuts for billionaires over lowering costs for everyday Nevadans.
Las Vegas Sun: Nevada’s Lee spearheads Democratic push in House to save ACA credits
- U.S. Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., is leading dozens of House Democrats in urging congressional leadership to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits before they expire at the end of the year.
- More than 4 million people could become uninsured by 2034 if the enhanced premium credit expires at the end of the year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Add to that the projected increases in health care costs across the board, and a crisis is looming, Lee said.
- Nearly 100,000 ACA marketplace enrollees in Nevada currently benefit from an average $465 a month in credits, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
- Nevada Reps. Steven Horsford and Dina Titus were among the 36 Democrats signing the letter to the congressional leaders.
- [Lee] also noted that this additional financial pressure would be on top of Medicaid cuts, tariffs and the overall rising costs of goods and services.
- A 60-year-old couple earning $80,000 would see their annual health insurance premiums increase by over $12,000 if the credits aren’t extended, she said.
- The people pushed off Medicaid because of massive funding cuts to that program would also skew younger, Lee said, and they may be left to choose between paying their rent or purchasing health care if the ACA credits are not extended.
- When an insurance program loses its younger base, which tends to be healthier and therefore less expensive to insure, the base price of insurance gets costlier. The result is increased health insurance premiums for everyone, she said.
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