MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – The longest government shutdown in U.S. history ended Wednesday night, but questions remain about healthcare costs under the Affordable Care Act as lawmakers debate extending tax credits that lower insurance premiums.
The tax credit that reduces health insurance costs for Affordable Care Act recipients was at the root of the shutdown dispute. Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin voted against the proposal to end the government shutdown because the spending plan did not include those tax credits.
“We have a broken system that prioritizes profits over patients,” Baldwin said during a visit to Madison on Thursday.
Democrats wanted to extend the credit in the spending bill, but Republicans said that was a separate policy that should be decided at a different time.
Baldwin warned of the impact on Wisconsin residents if the subsidies are not extended.
“For 275,000 Wisconsinites, their health care costs will double, triple, or even worse,” she said. “A handshake deal to work on this later is simply not good enough for me and my constituents.”
Affordable Care subsidies are expected to expire at the end of the year. Without the extension, premiums are expected to rise and more than 2 million people will lose health insurance coverage next year, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
“We do have a commitment from Leader Thune for a vote on a bill that we’ll present, but I can’t tell you how much urgency I feel with the situation right now,” she said.
The extension would need a 60-vote majority in the Senate to pass.
“I’m certainly not throwing in the towel,” Baldwin said.
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson did not respond to multiple requests for comment but wrote on X: “@SenSanders and his Democratic colleagues are misleading the public. They simply won’t admit that their signature piece of legislation, Obamacare, is a complete failure. The first step in solving any problem is admitting you have one. Democrats need to take that first step.”
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Wisconsin lawmakers respond to end of government shutdown, healthcare costs remain uncertain
