As a potential government shutdown looms next week, a Florida Democrat warned recent spending bill cuts could dramatically increase healthcare insurance costs.
Speaking at a news conference Thursday in Sunrise, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, said Affordable Care Act enrollees, and other healthcare customers, are at risk of surging premium rates if Congress fails to act to restore COVID-19 era tax credits.
Without the federal subsidy, she said, healthcare insurance premiums, beginning next year, may be unaffordable for those who rely on the ACA and may cause private healthcare insurance costs to increase.
"Everybody else's premiums will go up, whether you have an Obamacare policy or not, because it's fewer people going to hospitals and fewer people seeing doctors," Wasserman Schultz said. "Those costs all get shifted to all of us."
Florida, with almost 5 million ACA enrollees, is the state with the highest ACA participation in the U.S. One of every five Florida enrollees, is from Miami-Dade.
READ MORE: More than 1 million ACA enrollees in Miami-Dade to pay higher premiums if federal tax credits expire
Health insurance premiums in Florida are expected to rise between 15% and 41%, say advocates.
Carolina Zerpa, an insurance broker and ACA beneficiary, said her own rates could go up from $220 to $550 if the credits are not maintained. Enrolled in the ACA since 2014, she has seen other members' rates skyrocket.
"I saw a lot of members' policies rise from $45 to $98. It's almost a 100% increase for the next year," Zerpa told reporters at Thursday's news conference.
Joseph Mustipher, a South Florida insurance agent, said there are no other viable alternatives for ACA enrollees who cannot afford the premium hikes. He pointed to stricter plans that disqualify applicants for having prior conditions, while some shared ministry programs only service enrollees of a specific faith.
"You have to just hope and have mercy on emergency health care, family funds [or] GoFundMe. It's just a hospital taking you in and just billing you forever," Mustipher said.
Camilo Mejia, director of policy and research at the advocacy nonprofit Catalyst Miami, said many of the families he works with are "very afraid" of the expiration of subsidies.
"For South Florida's low income families who rely on these subsidies, any significant increase in their monthly health insurance premiums would threaten both their health and financial security," Mejia said.
Meanwhile, in Washington, Congressional Republicans have crafted a short-term measure to fund the government through Nov. 21, but Democrats have insisted that the measure address their concerns on health care. They want to reverse the Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump's mega-bill passed this summer as well as extend tax credits that make health insurance premiums more affordable for millions who purchase through the marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act. Republicans say that's all a non-starter.
Neither side is showing any signs of budging, with the House not even expected to be in session before an expected shutdown next Wednesday, Oct. 1, the start of the federal government's new fiscal year.
Wasserman Schultz pointed to a lack of collaboration with Republicans as one of the main reasons for the impending government shutdown.
She said Democrats plan to be in Washington outside of session on Monday after Trump cancelled meetings this week with Democratic leaders to negotiate avoiding the shutdown.
"This is a financial cliff that we are going to," Wasserman Schultz said. "Republicans will push people who can least afford it off of [it], and they'll lose their health care, and everyone's health care prices will go up. It's so unnecessary."
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