#health-insurance-premiums

#health-insurance-premiums

I think you've been extremely eloquent in this shutdown and talking about the issue of Obamacare subsidies. I'm a Republican too. We don't agree on everything, but we both agree we have to extend these subsidies at least for a year because you just can't pull the rug out from under people who are going to see their premiums skyrocket. You talked about your own family, how you'd be impacted, but I imagine many of the 700,000 constituents you represent.

This week, the current federal-government shutdown will become the third-longest ever, surpassing a 2013 shutdown that lasted 16 days. There are some significant echoes of the 2013 shutdown, which stemmed from a failed Republican effort to "defund" Obamacare just as that health-reform initiative was being fully implemented. Now the shoe is on the other foot: Democrats are demanding that Obamacare subsidies, which were significantly expanded in 2021, be extended. Without congressional action, upwards of 20 million Americans will see a huge Obamacare premium hike at the end of the year.