Almost 400k Arizonans will pay more for health insurance if Republicans don’t extend credits

The expansion of the tax credits, along with a repeal of the cuts to Medicaid included in the first federal budget, are at the heart of the disagreement between Republicans and Democrats that has left Congress and Trump careening toward a government shutdown. Unless a funding plan is in place by Oct. 1, multiple federal agencies and programs will be forced to stop work. 

Congressional Republicans have refused to negotiate with Democrats — a tactic Trump has urged — so Democrats have said they won’t support the spending plan that is currently before Congress.

In a bid to pressure Republicans into meeting them at the negotiating table, Democrats have sought to draw attention to the widespread impact the health care funding cuts will have across the country. In Arizona, as many as 750,000 people could lose access to health care because of the $880 billion in funding cuts that will be implemented by Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” over the next 10 years. 

And Arizonans who get their coverage through the Affordable Care Act insurance marketplace could see their premiums skyrocket as much as 55% next year. 

U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari, a Phoenix Democrat, said her party is willing to figure out a bipartisan solution, and placed the blame for any future uncertainty on Republicans, who have so far resisted calls to shore up health care funding. Trump abruptly canceled a meeting with Democratic leadership scheduled for later this week that was intended to kickoff negotiations. 

“If there is a government shutdown, it is entirely on Donald Trump and Republicans for refusing to sit down and fix the issues that matter most to Americans,” Ansari said.

The freshman lawmaker pointed out that gutting health care funding is vastly unpopular with voters, and said Republicans only stand to gain from working with Democrats to resolve the cuts. Opposition to cutting Medicaid funding is high and spans party affiliation: an April survey found that 76% of Americans were against doing so. Republicans nonetheless approved the largest-ever cuts to Medicaid over the summer, which will see an estimated 15 million Americans lose health care coverage. 

U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton, also a Phoenix Democrat, noted that insurance premium tax credits are an essential part of what makes health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace accessible for so many families. Some 92% of people who get their health insurance through the marketplace rely on tax credits. 

“This isn’t just politics,” Stanton said. “This is about real people making impossible choices between seeing a doctor or putting food on their table.” 

Without tax credits, Americans who previously relied on them could see their premiums jump more than 80% next year, straining the budgets of people already dealing with high inflation and rising cost of living. Health care advocates fear that could lead to people foregoing coverage rather than pay the elevated premiums, resulting in more emergency room visits and increasing the cost of the health care system for everyone — including those who have private health insurance through their employers — as hospitals absorb more costs. 

Stanton urged Republicans to act to prevent the negative outcomes of leaving millions without health care coverage. 

“Congressional Republicans have an easy choice,” he said. “Come back to D.C., negotiate a bipartisan budget that helps working families and lifts up our country or go it alone, shut down the government and cause even more pain for the American people.” 

For now, it appears unlikely that Republicans will compromise on the funding demands from Democrats. Each member of Arizona’s Republican delegation, at least, voted in favor of the first federal budget that included massive cuts to Medicaid.