Government Shutdown Poised to Skyrocket Health Care Costs
- Amplify NH
- Oct 14
- 3 min read
Following the second week of Congressional Republicans’ government shutdown, Republicans are making it obvious that working class Americans are just bartering chips as a means of trying to accelerate President Donald Trump’s extremist agenda.
The longer this shutdown continues, the more essential services and the livelihoods of thousands of federal employees are jeopardized. And at the center of the shutdown debates is the potential for health care premiums across the nation to skyrocket. Let’s take a look at what’s at stake for Granite Staters:
Affordable Health Care Access on the Line
One of the driving forces to the government shutdown was Republicans’ unwillingness to extend tax credits for Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance premiums that expire on Dec. 31. A top priority for Congressional Democrats, these ACA tax credits help Granite Staters and Americans across the nation to afford health care premiums. If they are not extended, millions of middle-class Americans are likely to see their insurance premiums double or triple.
New Hampshire U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan was sounding the alarm about the potential for skyrocketing costs at a roundtable discussion with medical providers at Lamprey Health Care in Newmarket, a federally qualified health care center that stands to be negatively impacted by the expiration of ACA subsidies.
“What we know is that the tax cuts that help people afford this coverage are due to expire at the end of the year, but the notices about new premium rates go out about Nov. 1,” Hassan said. “We have been saying for months now, Democrats in Congress, we need to extend these tax cuts so that people can continue to afford their health insurance.”
Hassan also did not hesitate to call out Republicans’ hypocrisy, noting their private claims of wanting to address this crisis, without providing any semblance of a solution.
“We have a very time-sensitive issue that is really important to millions of Americans, tens of thousands of Granite Staters,” Hassan added. “It’s something that Republicans privately tell us they want to address, and we have been saying to them, ‘But we need to do it by Nov. 1,’ and then they presented a resolution that went past that Nov. 1 deadline with no provision to fix the tax cuts for these premiums.”
Champion of ACA Tax Credits, Shaheen Pushes Senate Republicans to Extend Credits
New Hampshire’s senior U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen is also going to bat for Granite Staters’ access to affordable health premiums, highlighting the impact of not extending ACA tax credits across the nation.
Last week, Shaheen called to attention that if Congress does not extend these tax credits by the end of the year, 267,000 veterans who use ACA enhanced premium tax credits will be priced out of health care coverage
“Over 600,000 veterans are projected to use ACA enhanced premium tax credits to access affordable health care coverage this year - but if Republicans fail to work with us to extend these tax credits, 267,000 of those veterans will lose their health care,” said Senator Shaheen. “That’s no way to treat the Americans who put everything on the line to serve our nation. We need to act now to extend these tax credits so that thousands of veterans don’t get priced out of health care.”
Shaheen, who introduced bicameral legislation this year to permanently extend ACA premium tax credits, has been pushing Republicans to address this issue, both to preserve the credits as well as reopen the government.
“I’ve been having conversations with my fellow senators about where we can find common ground with enough people in both parties so that we can reopen the government and address skyrocketing health care costs —and there’s a real urgency to doing so as people across this country get notices from insurance companies this month that prices are going up,“ Shaheen said.
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Thank you,
Emma Carroll
Digital Director, Amplify NH