- Joe Manchin is noncommittal on backing an extension of beefed-up Obamacare subsidies.
- Democrats are at risk of setting off a premium hike that voters would learn about in the fall.
- One map shows how much healthcare bills may soar for older voters.
Democrats are holding their breath as Sen. Joe Manchin privately negotiates with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in a last-ditch effort to strike a deal on their stalled economic agenda.
Adding to their anxiety is a potential time bomb set to go off right before the November midterm elections, when millions of Americans could face steep health insurance premium hikes as a pandemic-era relief program comes to an end.
It's highly uncertain whether Manchin will temper his resistance to President Joe Biden's spending plans and allow them to advance in the 50-50 Senate. Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, has voiced support for a narrow bill centered on deficit reduction, lowering prescription drug costs, and raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
He hasn't committed to anything, raising the prospect that Democrats won't achieve even marginal progress on their pledges to expand access to healthcare or combat the climate emergency.
In particular, many are anxious to learn whether Manchin will get on board with an extension of beefed-up federal subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.
That financial assistance — enacted under President Joe Biden's stimulus law early last year — has cut the cost of Obamacare insurance for many individuals who purchase coverage in the federal exchange or state marketplaces outside of their jobs. The temporary program is set to expire at the end of the year. Manchin is noncommittal on renewing it. They must lock down his support to advance a smaller bill in the upper chamber over GOP resistance.
"I've heard people talking about that but I haven't had any conversations on that," he told CNN's Manu Raju on Tuesday. The conservative Democrat said in February he had backed extending it.
If Democrats fail to revive a smaller plan with a renewal of the enhanced Obamacare subsidies, millions of voters would learn they're up for a large premium hike only weeks before they cast ballots in the November midterms. Older Americans would bear the brunt of it, as illustrated in the map below for a 60-year old couple earning $75,000 and below.
Under that scenario, steep price hikes often totaling hundreds of dollars a month will hit 13 million Americans benefiting from the program during a punishing stretch of inflation, experts say. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation projects that three million people would lose health coverage since it'd be too expensive to keep.
People living in West Virginia would face some of the largest premium hikes in the US, given a population that skews older and more rural compared to the rest of the US. A report released last month from advocacy group Families USA found that West Virginians would see an average premium hike of $1,536 per person.
House Democrats in swing-districts are pleading with their Senate counterparts to avert a premium hike. "We must make lower out-of-pocket costs and expanded coverage a permanent pillar of our health care system, and reconciliation is our only chance to get this done," the 26 House Democrats wrote in a letter to Democratic leaders last month.