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Michigan Advance: Dingell leads Michigan Dems urging GOP to restore health care tax credits, warns of spiraling costs

Ahead of Saturday’s start of the open enrollment period for health care under the Affordable Care Act, Michigan’s Congressional Democrats are calling on their Republican colleagues to work to restore the Affordable Care Act tax credits set to expire.

Those tax credits have become a centerpiece of the federal budget debate and the ongoing shutdown of the federal government, which is approaching the one-month mark. Without them, health care premiums will skyrocket, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) said in a virtual press conference held Thursday.

“At some point, you had to draw the line in the sand. I want to get this government opened again. That means Republicans have to go to work in Washington,” Dingell said. “I hope Speaker Johnson calls us all back. We all get back there. We reopen the government, they do something about health care, so that millions of Americans don’t lose it.”

Dingell and her colleagues have pointed to these health insurance tax credits as a defining budget issue for them since the shutdown began, and have repeatedly called on Republicans to extend them through the coming year.

“Because Congress has prioritized tax cuts for billionaires over Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, working Americans ae now seeing their health care costs double,” said U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City) in a press release from her office. “We can’t afford to wait any longer. Speaker Johnson needs to call the House back immediately so we can stop the health care crisis from landing on Michigan families.”

Jodie Schanhals, a 62-year-old entrepreneur from Traverse City, joined Dingell and Hertel in the press conference. Her health insurance, she said, will increase by around $1,200 per year without the tax credits.

“Right now, the Republicans in the House of Representatives are placing me in the middle of this battle. Either we’re not gonna pay the health care subsidies that go along with the ACA, so everybody can get health care, or we’re not gonna feed 40 million people,” she said, referencing the lapse in SNAP benefits set to start on Nov. 1. “I am outraged that this is the choice. It’s so cruel.”

Schanhals, who had hip surgery in 2007, said that she is due to find out if she will need a hip replacement, which she is expected to need.

“I won’t die from this,” she added. “I just won’t be able to walk.”

“For weeks, they refused to negotiate,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel added during the press conference, referring to Republicans. “For weeks, they refused to extend the tax credits that would keep premiums affordable. And now, with open enrollment starting this weekend, they still refuse to fix the problem they created.”