A bill to reinstate expired health insurance subsidies passed out of the U.S. House of Representatives this week, splitting Arizona’s congressional delegation along party lines.
Millions of Americans — including around 400,000 Arizonans — who purchase health insurance on Affordable Care Act marketplaces saw their premiums spike after subsidies first passed during the COVID-19 pandemic expired at the end of last year.
The measure, which would put those subsidies in place for another three years, passed out of the House on a 230-196 vote with some bipartisan support.
All Democrats, including Arizona Reps. Greg Stanton, Yassamin Ansari and Adelita Grijalva, voted for the bill. Seventeen Republicans also voted to pass the measure despite opposition from House Speaker Mike Johnson, but Arizona’s GOP representatives were not among them.
The ‘no’ votes
Rep. Juan Ciscomani previously supported a failed bipartisan effort to renew the subsidies for one year.
“Rising costs are already squeezing Arizona families, and these premium increases will only make things worse. The debate of how we got here is for another day — right now, we must act. Doing nothing is not an option,” he said in a press release on Dec. 4.
But he did not back efforts to circumvent Johnson to force Thursday’s vote and joined most Republicans in opposing the measure.
In a statement to KJZZ on Friday, Ciscomani called the subsidies a “Band-Aid” that benefitted insurance companies while failing to address the rising healthcare costs.
“I have been clear: my support for a temporary extension must be accompanied by real common-sense reforms,” Ciscomani said in the statement. “Tackling the fraud and abuse that are part of the program is not an option — it is a requirement. The three-year extension proposed by the Democrat leader does nothing for families struggling with rising health care costs, quite the opposite. It keeps the status quo and that’s not acceptable.”
On the House floor, Rep. David Schweikert gave a similar explanation for his opposition, arguing the Affordable Care Act costs too much money and disproportionately benefits insurers.
“Have we lost our minds?” Schweikert said. “Why is it so much easier to keep borrowing money and borrowing money and borrowing money and say, ‘I’m giving you something but I’m putting it on your credit card.’”
He said lawmakers should instead focus on clearing a path for new technologies that he believes will lower health care costs.
The ‘yes’ votes
But Democrats — and the handful of Republicans — who voted to renew the subsidies said they are needed to reverse the drastic health insurance cost increases experienced by millions of Americans this month.
“The last thing Arizonans need right now are higher prices. But as of January 1st more than 400,000 Arizonans have watched their monthly health care premiums go through the roof,” Stanton said in a statement. “That’s why I joined every single House Democrat, and a few pragmatic Republicans, to pass a 3-year extension of ACA health care tax credits to keep health care costs low for the American people.”
Late last year, the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions warned Arizonans who used the ACA marketplace that their premiums could go up by as much as 55% due to several factors, including expiring subsidies and rising healthcare costs.
Next steps
The bill must still pass through the U.S. Senate, where it faces an uphill battle after a similar proposal failed in the chamber last month.
“The question is: will Leader Thune bring it to the floor? And if they do, then we'll pass it,” Democratic Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego said, referring to the Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
Speaking with KJZZ and other news outlets on Friday, Gallego acknowledged the need to compromise with Republicans and agreed that the health insurance system set up by the Affordable Care Act is in need of reform. But he argued Congress should extend the subsidies and then turn its attention to fixing the system.
“The worst thing we could do is just take it all away and not have any fallback for people,” he said. “And right now, we're hearing the worst of outcomes. People are deciding that they would rather just take their chance instead of buying health insurance.”
According to NPR, negotiations are ongoing in the Senate on compromise legislation that would include a two-year subsidy extension. But several sticking points remain, including a desire by some Republicans to include a ban on using federal funding for abortion procedures.
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