C-SPAN’s Washington Journal Open Phones dives into the looming 26% Obamacare premium hike if Biden-era subsidies expire by December, risking $1,000–$2,000 monthly spikes for millions. Callers clash: Democrats like Bruce (NY) and James (SC) warn of 20M losing coverage, while Republicans like Jim (FL) and KJ (AZ) call subsidies a "cartel" or "vote control" scheme. Independents propose income-based pricing, public health facilities, or scrapping insurance entirely—highlighting systemic flaws in employer deductions ($800B/year) and ACA’s inflationary cost structure. The debate underscores how partisan gridlock and structural inefficiencies could collapse healthcare access for vulnerable Americans. [Automatically generated summary]
Congress Faces Affordable Care Act Subsidies Decision00:15:25
unidentified
The flag replacement program got started by a good friend of mine who, a Navy vet, saw a flag at the office that needed to be replaced and said, wouldn't this be great if this can be something that we did for anyone?
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Comcast supports C-SPAN as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front-row seat to democracy.
This afternoon, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt will speak to reporters and likely face questions on last week's shooting of two National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C. and new reporting on a U.S. military strike in September against a suspected Venezuelan drug boat.
We could also get an update on U.S. efforts to reach a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia.
You can see the White House briefing live on C-SPAN, also on C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, and online at c-span.org.
We start this morning with health care, a topic of conversation here in the nation's capital and across the nation for weeks.
Obamacare premiums are set to rise on average 26%, according to an analysis from KFF.
That is, if lawmakers in the White House don't step in and provide some solution.
And Americans are beginning to be concerned.
According to an NBC article from last month, headlines, a record number of Americans are anxious about health care costs going into next year.
And they cite a Gallup poll from November 17th, which found nearly half of U.S. adults are worried they won't be able to afford necessary health care in the coming year.
The highest level of concern recorded since West Health and Gallup began tracking the measure in 2021.
One in five Americans, also a record high, report that they or someone in their household couldn't pay for prescription medications in the past three months.
These are merely two of countless health care hurdles Americans face, hurdles Americans face.
And a report from Scripps News with the headline, Congress has just weeks to decide whether to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, says that when lawmakers return on December 1st today, they'll have less than three weeks to debate and potentially extend Biden-era Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of this year.
The Senate is guaranteed to take a vote in the first two weeks of December on the extension on those subsidies, but it's not clear if the vote will pass.
There's also no guarantee the bill comes up for a vote in the House of Representatives.
Before Thanksgiving, we heard from House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries on the issue, who basically previewed how Democrats are approaching this next big battle.
Well, the Affordable Care Act tax credits are going to expire on December 31st.
And if that happens, tens of millions of hardworking American taxpayers are going to experience dramatically increased premiums, co-pays, and deductibles.
In some cases, premiums for health insurance will increase by $1,000 or $2,000 per month.
This is for working-class Americans, middle-class Americans, and everyday Americans.
Health care will be unaffordable.
People will be unable to go see a doctor when they need one.
And that's unacceptable in this great country, the wealthiest country in the history of the world.
Over in the Senate, it's my understanding that Leader Thune has recommitted to a vote on an Affordable Care Act extension no later than the second week in December.
So there are ongoing discussions that are taking place in the Senate.
Meanwhile, unfortunately, in the House, my Republican colleagues have shown zero interest in doing anything related to the ticking time bomb of the Affordable Care Act tax credits expiring.
House Democrats have launched a discharge petition to try to compel an up or down vote on a straight three-year extension so we can provide working-class Americans with the same level of certainty that my Republican colleagues provided their billionaire donors when passing the one big ugly bill.
Now, in the days before Thanksgiving, reports about President Trump's health care proposal that would extend subsidies in some form, among other issues like the issue of eligibility, was met with backlash from Republican lawmakers, and that rollout was paused.
Yesterday, we heard from Kevin Hassett, a top aid economic aid to President Trump, who basically downplayed this proposal.
Is that sometimes people leak pre-decisional things that are confidential and pre-decisional?
And I think that somebody did that and then it rolled back because it hadn't been through the whole process.
But President Trump has been clear that he's very concerned about the cost of health care, and that's why we had $50 billion for rural hospitals in the Big Beautiful bill, why we tried to get $30 billion in for cost sharing, and the Democrats didn't like that.
They had an alternative approach.
And so I think that what we're going to see now between now and Christmas is that people are going to work this out because we have a solution, the White House has a solution for cost sharing, and the Democrats have an alternative.
And people don't want for the few seniors that have really, really massive increases to see those.
But don't forget that the vast majority of people in the Affordable Care Act are getting their insurance for less than $50 a month.
And so while this is an issue that needs to be worked out, we don't want to cause panic for the folks who are worried that they're going to lose the thing that they have.
It's really just the very, very high-cost people who are closer to retirement age that have the problem.
That was Kevin Hassett talking about the president's proposal that was postponed.
It was expected to roll out the beginning of last week.
Now, I want to enjoy, join, I want to invite our viewers to join in on the conversation.
Republicans, your line is 202-748-8001.
Democrats, your line is 202-748-8000.
Independents, your line is 202-748-8002.
And of course, this morning, for the next hour, we are talking about health care.
So, obviously, there's the question of what proposals do Republicans want to see when it comes to health care costs, especially if they do not want the proposal that was addressed or that was expected to be addressed from President Trump just last week.
So, there's a Washington Times article that I'm reading that says, what's in the GOP's plan for government-funded tax-exempt HSA Health Care Savings Act and why Democrats don't like it?
Obviously, that has been a Trump.
I mean, that has been an idea floated from President Trump saying that he wants money to go directly to consumers and not to insurance companies.
So, this article says that congressional Republicans are considering tax-exempt health savings accounts as their preferred vehicle to deliver on President Trump's call to send taxpayer-funded health care subsidies directly to consumers instead of insurers.
It says Republicans are providing aid to consumers through HSA.
Republicans say providing aid to consumers through HSAs will give them more flexibility over their health care choices that then embrace subsidies, which are tax credits mostly paid in advance to insurance companies to lower what Obamacare customers pay out of pocket for their premiums.
If you scroll, it says that Democrats counter that HSAs are used predominantly by wealthier families who won't do enough to help lower-income families afford health insurance.
They note that HSA funds can't be spent on premiums and have annual contribution limits that are insufficient to cover major health expenses.
Now, if we turn to an article from CNN that was published on November 24th, it says, who will get hit hardest by ACA premiums increases in four charts?
Now, of course, remember, KFF News found that premiums could rise 26% if nothing is done.
And so it says that the enhanced subsidies, which are scheduled to lapse at year's end, have enabled many lower-income Americans to obtain coverage with no or very low premiums and broaden eligibility for assistance to many middle-class consumers.
But that will all change if Congress has not agreed to renew the more generous subsidies.
In order to end the recent government shutdown, Republicans, Senate Republicans agreed to hold a mid-December vote on the enhanced subsidies in exchange for extending federal government funding through January.
Those who will be hit hardest by soaring premiums include lower-income, older, and middle-class enrollees.
Turning to our callers right now, Mark from Oklahoma, a Democrat.
Your line is open.
unidentified
Yes.
My deal is I think that it's just like I'm on disability and Social Security, and the reason I have insurance, which I've been happy with, is because of the Affordable Health Care Act.
And, you know, I think maybe Congress should and the House of Representatives should have to go in the marketplace and buy insurance for themselves to see what it's like.
Richard from Texas, Independent, your line is open.
unidentified
Oh, good morning.
I'd like to comment that I really think America is really held hostage by the insurance companies.
I think that I saw the other day on BBC or Sky News over in England that they tax sugar, sugar, like milkshakes and stuff, and they're trying to lower the sugar.
You know, if your sugar products are below a certain level, you're not facing a higher tax, and they're trying to prevent, you know, diseases for like diabetes and sugar diabetes.
Also, I think I'm a firm believer that we need universal health care.
We don't need to be paying a middleman like insurance companies.
The military has insurance.
People are talking about AI coming down and how that's really going to benefit the medical field.
They need to be training people, using money for that instead of paying insurance companies and get more people in the medical fields and just get rid of the middleman, which is insurance companies.
And again, we feel like we're being held hostage by the insurance companies in America.
Edward from Virginia and Independent, you're next.
unidentified
Good morning.
Yes, I guess my comment would be with these, the last gentleman said, get rid of the tax breaks, if we cut all that back and we put that towards health care, would that even make a dent?
I'm sorry, repeat your question for me, Edward.
I was saying if we took those tax breaks, as the gentleman just said before, and put them back into the system, would we even make a tax, you know, would that even make a break into the problems we have with funding this stuff?
And also going back to the privatization of it, wouldn't if like people talked about privatizing Social Security in the 90s, and if we have done that and you'd made 5% to 6% on your money since then, wouldn't we all be better off?
Well, what would you do in the now, right now, Edward?
Obviously, Obamacare premiums are set to hike.
Obviously, there's larger questions about entitlements and all those things.
But what should Congress be doing in the next three weeks to ensure that people have access to health care now?
unidentified
Well, I think obviously the single-payer option is out there, but I mean, if you can get it entire-based and make it more incentive-wise for the employers to help with that, I think that would help.
I've been ex-military.
I was, and now then I went obviously into the private sector, but I've always had employment help me with that, whereas versus the subsidies, I assume, are for people who can't afford anything, and then that has to all be paid for by the government, correct?
Yeah, I don't actually think that that is correct.
A lot of people obviously are paying into the Obamacare system, and those subsidies, which were instituted during COVID, were to kind of keep down prices in the intermediate, and they've grown since then, something that Republicans obviously dislike, and Democrats believe should be continuing to happen until there is some alternative.
So I don't know if it's that people just aren't able to afford it versus this is a mechanism put in place by Congress during COVID to keep some of these prices down for people who are in the Obamacare system.
unidentified
I mean, say COVID didn't happen.
Wouldn't the prices have gone through the roof anyways just by the design of Obamacare?
I was calling to say something about the insurance, the insurance policy.
I think that if these politicians, Republican and Democrat, had to live like the lady from Oklahoma said, take their insurance away and see what they would do.
I believe that if they lost their insurance, it wouldn't matter to them because most of them can write a check and pay their families' medical bills.
It's the same thing about their salaries and stuff.
They work for the people, but it takes the people maybe five, six, ten years to make the kind of money that they make.
Hey, I just want to make one point, maybe remind some people of some things.
Back when Obamacare was working its way through, you know, the process, Democrats made a lot of concessions, one of them being the public option, which Republicans got them to remove from the bill.
And I remember watching Mitch McConnell, a couple other Republicans on Fox News, arguing against the public option.
And the argument was that private insurance companies would never be able to compete against the rates that a public option would afford consumers.
And I don't know, I hear people talking about the issues with Obamacare.
I mean, there's issues, there's issues with the cost of health care, but I thought that was the strangest argument.
And it's amazing how that's fallen by the wayside and nobody remembers that.
Calvin from North Carolina, Democrat, you're next.
unidentified
Yes, thanks for taking my call.
My comment is the guy from Florida who was complaining about the tax subsidies and Obamacare.
And, you know, he's talking about his job and he gets insurance to his job.
Well, you know, he's getting tax subsidies too.
You know, all these people that get insurance through their jobs, all the companies are doing is writing off every nickel, dime, and quarter they spend on health care to their employees.
So the taxpayers are actually subsidizing their health care to the tune of over $800 billion a year.
And the other issue is there's no limit on the tax subsidies.
The companies can have any kind of health care they want.
They can pay regardless of how much it costs.
Health Care Costs and Home Habits00:07:51
unidentified
They even have these Cadillac plans, and they just write it all off, and the taxpayers end up paying for all of it.
So, you know, everybody's getting a tax subsidy.
And the problem is, is that we think as long as the companies are doing it, it's okay.
Linda from California and Independent, your line is open.
unidentified
Hi.
I do appreciate all these good comments I'm hearing about this.
I live in Chico, California, and have been working strong with a very strong group that supports single-payer health care or Medicare for all.
And one very important thing is we must remember, and this I learned from that group, but no one seems to pay attention to it that much.
But boy, all these scholars that you have today surely know their stuff.
But I will just say it is cheaper to give health care to everybody than it is to set up a system that hires lawyers, et cetera, to keep people from having, getting health care that they're paying for to insurance policies or anything else.
It's cheaper just to give everybody health care, but we're not going to do that.
If it wasn't for ACAs, I wouldn't be able to have any health care at all.
I mean, I've had four artery bypasses in the last two years, and that doesn't come cheap.
But I mean, I just know that without it, if they lose the ACAs, I probably end up giving up my Medicaid and Medicare and all that stuff because I can't afford it.
I live on $1,500 a month, and I don't think anybody can.
Your last caller is talking about your refrigerator.
People with low income live with what their pocketbook will afford.
The better way to do it would be to take the health care money out of expenses and put it into assets like building actual rural health care centers that would service people in all areas of the country, inner city, country, but to have regional health care centers.
And what you're doing in that aspect is you're increasing your supply of health care and on your demand, so your costs will go down.
So you increase supply and you have the same demand, your costs will go down.
But if you put money into expenses, your costs and have the same amount of health services, you have an imbalance of more money, too much money into the health care, and you have inflation in health care.
James, can I ask somebody who is on Obamacare, would you be against something that Republicans have floated, which is basically converting what they're paying now in those ACA subsidies to an HSA account that the individual user, so you, could use versus making those payments to insurance companies?
unidentified
I don't think that'll work.
And that $50 million that they're talking about throwing out that to the hospitals is just bill don't, if Obamacare don't get extended, that is nothing but a drip in the bucket.
No.
This, we have got to keep.
Why?
Look at Margie Taylor Greene.
Look at two or three other Republican congressmen.
Taking Competition Out of Healthcare00:04:25
unidentified
They're resigning because they know they can't this is they're not going to fight the Democrat because they know they're going to lose.
Al from Tennessee and Independent, your line is open.
unidentified
Yeah, I'm going to talk about two things.
One is rights, and the other is costs.
If you believe that health care is a right, then the country's over because there's simply not enough wealth in the country to fund everyone's health care.
It's not in the Constitution.
It's a recent idea.
So no, it's not a right.
It's a way for politicians to control votes.
The other thing is costs.
It's either naive or ignorant to discuss costs without talking about cost shifts.
All this discussion about costs is shifting the cost from one person to another.
It has nothing to do with the cost itself going up or down.
This discussion is how does one person obtain the wealth of his neighbor to pay for his health care?
It's just that simple.
How do we get money from one person who earned it to give it to another person who didn't?
You can have a lottery, or they can take the health care out of the lottery winnings in each state, even.
But I believe that they need to make a new party because mathematically, you know, the people can't afford these outrageous prices, and it's all ran by a cartel.
Yeah, I just want to make a couple of comments, you know, about the health care system, especially with Chump.
You know what?
I tend to think Trump needs some Obamacare because obviously he ain't getting them into the hospitals he's going to and whatnot.
And all the stupid things he's doing.
I mean, this guy talking about taking health care from poor people and giving these tax breaks to all these rich people.
And it seemed like the poor people out here out there begging, begging for the kick of health care now that taking food stamps and all that stink that can keep people alive.
You know what I'm saying?
And he just don't seem to care.
I think the guy is kind of lost out there and whatnot.
He doesn't care about anything other than the Trump family.
I'm this guy touring the White House into Moscow.
You see all these gold pods hanging all over the place, gold bathroom flakes and all kinds of stuff.
I mean, I think you need somebody to change his diapers too.