The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on Thursday on a bill to extend premium tax credits from the Affordable Care Act.
The ACA subsidies help more than 140,000 Connecticut residents pay for their health care. A handful of House Republicans are expected to vote with Democrats to pass the extension bill, but it’s unlikely to pass the Senate in its current state.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-3) is the ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee.
“If Senate Republicans once again block this legislation after it passes the House, then there can be no further doubt, my friends, Republicans and President Trump, bear completely the responsibility for our current health care crisis,” DeLauro said. “They created it, they ignored it, and now they have actively and repeatedly blocked Democrat attempts to fix it.”
Health care premium costs rose thousands of dollars for some people this month after the subsidies expired on Dec. 31.
Malaine Trecoske and her husband, from Branford, are in their early 60s and work part-time. She said if they keep their adjusted gross income under 400% of the poverty line ($84,600 a year or less), they will only pay $2,300 for health insurance.
However, if they earn $106,000 a year, they’ll pay $42,000 for health insurance because they no longer qualify for the premium subsidy.
“We're better off staying with a little bit under 400% of the poverty level [and] receiving the subsidies than we are making more money,” Trecoske said.
“This is nuts,” she continued. “We want to retire in a few years. Yet we are having to suppress our income for the next two years until we both go on Medicare. We don't have a guaranteed annual income that can absorb a $42,000 health insurance premium.”
Whether to extend the COVID-era credits was at the center of the government shutdown last fall.
