MIAMI — A trio of Senate Democrats descended on South Florida on Monday to highlight how badly high health insurance prices will hit area residents as the government shutdown drags on.
The soaring insurance costs in the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces are among the issues at the center of the shutdown, which is set to become the longest in U.S. history if it continues into Tuesday night. Florida has 4.7 million people who use marketplace, or “Obamacare,” plans for coverage, more than any other state. But the subsidies that made them affordable to many customers are set to expire at the end of the year.
“We're here, particularly in Miami-Dade, because you're ground zero for absorbing the pain from the Republican cuts,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said before a crowd gathered at a local health care union headquarters. “You are the ones who will lose more people off health care altogether and more people who will see their premiums go up than any place else in the country.”
Warren, along with Sens. Tina Smith of Minnesota and Chris Murphy of Connecticut, criticized President Donald Trump and Republicans for refusing to extend the more generous subsidies originally created as part of a 2021 pandemic relief bill.
“We are in Donald Trump's backyard to make the point that people's health insurance premiums are doubling because of him,” Smith said, referring to Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.
Republicans have been split on whether to fund the subsidies, given that they would shift payments for private insurance onto taxpayers and increase government spending by an estimated $335 billion over 10 years. Trump said in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview Sunday that Democrats should first vote to reopen the government.
“It's bad health care at far too high a price,” he said of Obamacare. “We should fix that. And we can fix it with the Democrats. All they have to do is let the country open, and we'll fix it.”
The White House reiterated the president’s position in a statement, noting Democrats had voted to fund the government more than a dozen times during previous sessions of Congress.
“President Trump and Republicans have been clear: we will only have policy discussions after Democrats stop holding the American people hostage by keeping the government shut down. The Democrats can end everyday Americans’ suffering and begin meaningful policy discussions today by passing the same clean funding bill they’ve already voted for 14 times,” said White House spokesperson Kush Desai.
Murphy argued the federal government already had enough funding to help Obamacare customers, pointing to the ballroom Trump is building at the White House, as well as the $20 billion economic rescue package the U.S. is sending to Argentina. The ballroom’s estimated cost is $300 million.
“Donald Trump could reopen the government tomorrow if he just decided to fix this problem,” Murphy said. He added that though Democrats “want to get the government open,” they won’t vote for what he called “an immoral budget that throws millions of people off their health care.”
Nov. 1 marked the first day of open enrollment, the time of year when people can sign up for health insurance partially financed by the federal government. Many are now facing sticker shock as the federal government chips in far less than it used to. On Monday, three Floridians shared their stories at the senators’ event, organized by Florida Voices for Health, a left-leaning organization that supports expanding health care coverage.
Among them was Miamian Francoise Cham, who said her premiums are set to rise 250 percent. She explained that she relies on the marketplace because she cannot work a typical 9-to-5 job since she takes care of her parents, her brother who is paralyzed and her daughter.
Boynton Beach resident Kara Farley said she previously went into medical debt because she wasn’t able to afford health insurance until the more generous subsidies kicked in during 2021. Her husband also has Type 1 diabetes and suffers from seizures, she said, and often had diabetic episodes that sent him to the emergency room when the couple wasn’t fully covered.
Farley, who is now undergoing treatment for a malignant melanoma, said her insurance premiums are now expected to double. “I honestly don't know where we'll find that extra money in our budget, and I don't want to be back in a position where we're trying to decide if I can get treatment or my husband does,” she said.
Seth Grossman, a clinical psychologist who lives in Parkland, said he was already paying $3,000 a month toward coverage this year to insure his family, including a son with autism. But next year his premiums will jump to $4,500.
Without a fix to the marketplaces, some Obamacare customers are likely to pay higher prices while others are expected to forgo coverage altogether because they can’t afford it. One estimate published by the Florida Policy Institute found 1.4 million Floridians could become uninsured.
Warren warned that failing to provide relief would have ramifications across the state, causing more people to flood into emergency rooms.
Democrats also said they would be willing to negotiate the details of the subsidies but accused Republicans of being unwilling to meet with them.
The senators did not specify which tradeoffs Democrats were willing to make, but Democratic Rep. Darren Soto, who represents part of Orlando and its suburbs to the south, floated the possibility of extending the federal payments toward insurance for only a year at a press conference Monday. He added, however, that it was necessary to negotiate before the spending bill passed because he didn’t think Republicans and Trump could be trusted to negotiate after.
"We stand ready and willing to negotiate in good faith, whether income caps — even a shorter term, which is not ideal, a one-year expansion rather than a 10 year expansion — to give people peace of mind,” Soto said. “It is not ideal, but we are prepared to make certain concessions.”
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