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John,
The looming expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies, passed as part of the American Rescue Plan, leaves 13 million Americans on the verge of skyrocketing health care premiums at the end of this year―with 3 million likely to lose coverage altogether.1 They will join the over 2 million uninsured poor people who live in 12 states that have refused to expand their Medicaid programs. Congress can and must fix both of these severe problems.
If Congress does not act by September 30th―and by all indications, they are not close―millions of households will receive letters just weeks before the midterm election that they will either need to pay more out of pocket or lose their health coverage.
Demand Congress act! Write to your senators and representative right now and tell them to extend ACA subsidies and fix the Medicaid coverage gap in the investment and tax package being negotiated between House and Senate leadership and President Biden right now.
TAKE ACTION
In order to pass the Senate with just 50 votes, Democrats will need to wrangle Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), who appears to be avoiding the ACA discussion altogether.
When asked last month if he’d support extending ACA subsidies, Manchin said, “There’s a lot of ifs there. That has not been discussed at all. Any discussions I’ve been involved with, it has not been discussed, no.”2
While Majority Leader Schumer’s office disputes that claim, stating that Manchin has asked that ACA subsidies “not be discussed before other core issues are settled,” it underscores the urgency of our work right now.
With only three months to come up with an agreement, Affordable Care Act subsidies and covering poor people through Medicaid must be discussed!
People struggling to pay rising household expenses can ill afford being socked with health care premium increases of $2,000 to $2,500 a year or more―but that’s the increase families of four with incomes of $45,000 to $90,000 will be asked to pay. And even more poor people will lose Medicaid, with no chance of other insurance, once our national Public Health Emergency is ended. Congress must not let this happen.
Write to your senators and representative and demand they include ACA subsidies and expanded Medicaid coverage in the financial package being negotiated in Congress this summer.
The reality is that while Manchin wants to focus more on paying down the debt than investments in children, families and working people, there is plenty of revenue to do both.
In last year’s House-passed investment package, prescription drug reform raised $297 billion.3
The millionaires surcharge, which will only impact the richest 0.02% of taxpayers, will raise $228 billion.4
And, a 15% Corporate Profits Minimum Tax, to stop wealthy corporations from avoiding what they owe in taxes, would raise $320 billion on domestic profits and another $310 billion on foreign profits.5
The House-passed plan, combined, raised more than $2.2 trillion in new revenue! Again, there’s plenty of revenue to invest in critical programs for working and low-income people, and pay down our national debt. Joe Manchin and Congress just need the political will to do it.
Take action today! Demand Congress act to prevent millions of people from seeing skyrocketing health care subsidies at the end of this year.
Thank you for fighting for the human needs of millions of Americans.
Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs
1 https://www.cbpp.org/research/health/health-premiums-will-rise-steeply-for-millions-if-rescue-plan-tax-credits-expire
2 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/june-23-2022/id1549272440?i=1000567478372
3 https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57626
4 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/28/president-biden-announces-the-build-back-better-framework/
5 https://americansfortaxfairness.org/issue/fact-sheet-president-bidens-build-back-better-plan-lowers-costs-families-fully-paid/
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