“There’s common ground here to do something that’s beneficial to all Americans, so we’re determined to keep trying.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) recently joined National Public Radio’s Morning Edition to discuss his efforts to extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Premium Tax Credits, which expired on January 1. The enhanced premium tax credits help more than 24 million Americans—including nearly 30,000 Vermonters—afford health care. So far, Republican leadership in the Senate and House has refused to work with Democrats to avoid the coverage cliff, and now millions are forced to go without health care coverage.
Without health care tax credits, a Vermont family of four making $130,000 a year that currently pays $1,195 a month for a baseline health care plan can expect to pay $3,035 a month for that same plan—a $22,080 annual increase. A Vermont family of four making about $64,000 a year will pay 920% more. Ultimately, Republicans’ actions will kick 15 million Americans off their health insurance, including about 4 million people who will no longer be able to afford an ACA health plan.
Listen to the interview and read key quotes from Senator Welch’s interview with host Leila Fadel:
Senator Welch on how the sticker shock of health care costs is devastating families nationwide:
“Well, the most significant is anybody—a small business, a farmer—whether they’re in a Republican or a Democratic district, is going to get hammered. So a farmer in Vermont, their premium is going to go from $900 a month to $3,200 a month. So they’re going to really face sticker shock. There’s going to be a secondary impact because the hospitals, particularly in rural areas, are going to lose revenue because folks are going to show up to get care and not have any way to pay for it. So there’ll be a ripple effect here, both immediate on the families who have to make a tough call—do they try to scrape together the money that they don’t have?—and then on the institutions in our rural communities that are so important to us.”
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Senator Welch on how the expiration of ACA premium tax credits will exacerbate the nationwide affordability crisis:
“The affordability issues that every American is facing—with rising utility bills, health care bills are a big part of it, groceries—this is really one where, in addition to the expense, it imposes an immense amount of insecurity. You know, a mother that I was talking to, with two kids, said she doesn’t know what to do. She feels totally irresponsible not to have health care, but it’s totally impossible for her to afford it. So I think this is really tough. And frankly, it’s not whether you’re politically oriented towards Trump or the Democrats. It’s really everybody trying to take care of their families. So this is really a bipartisan catastrophe in the making.”
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Senator Welch on working across the aisle to pass a retroactive extension of the enhanced tax credits:
“There’s a determination on both sides of the aisle to do every single thing we can to avoid this catastrophe. And there’s some practical things we could do to make that happen. You know, we could extend the credits for a couple of years. We could reform it. You could put an income cap. You could have a copay. You could have penalties on insurers who commit fraud, or insurance agents. And you actually could introduce some cost-saving reductions that have bipartisan support, and if we were successful in that, it actually could bring down health care premiums by about 11%. So there’s common ground here to do something that’s beneficial to all Americans, so we’re determined to keep trying.”
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Senator Welch on the urgency of getting President Trump to the negotiating table to extend APTCs:
“It would require that President Trump play a major role in this because he has such influence over the Republican majority in the House and even in the Senate. But where I have some optimism is that there’s a number of Republican and Democratic Senators who are seeing what a disaster this will be for families that they represent. That’s the common ground here, and it’s a doable thing. And the one thing that’s totally unacceptable is that people who have no control over how these premiums have increased—and these are the families, the small businesses, the farmers—they should not be the ones that pay the price here.”
“But we need President Trump, and I think he’s the one who can make this happen…My Republican colleagues can be speaking to him, and some of them are. So that’s really going to be the burden they bear. And my colleagues on the Republican side that are really intent on trying to get an extension are doing their best to engage with the President. But he’ll be critical.”
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