Washington D.C. – A new national YouGov/CBS poll found a staggering 40 percent of voters say the Trump-GOP Big Ugly Bill passed last year has “hurt” them or their family, while 21 percent say they’ve seen no benefit at all. The survey comes as NBC News reports that insurance costs are poised to spike again next year for most Americans after Trump and Republicans like Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and U.S. Rep. Nick Begich (R-AK) robbed $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to pay for tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations.
Brad Woodhouse, President of Save My Care: “So many families are worse off than they were before Trump-Sullivan-Begich Big Ugly Bill dug its claws into the economy. Since Republicans ripped away tax credits from workingfamilies, millions have seen their monthly premiums jump by hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars – and millions have been forced to drop coverage altogether. Gas, food and housing are all more expensive than the year before, and we already know health premiums will be even worse next year. Trump and his accomplices in Congress like Sen. Sullivan and Rep. Begich hatched a raw deal: a full-blown affordability crisis for working people in exchange for more tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. It’s no mystery why so many voters see the Big Ugly law as a punch in the gut, and why Sen. Sullivan and Rep. Begich desperately want Alaska families to forget who brought the pain.”
KEY REASONS WHY 40% OF VOTERS SAY THE BIG UGLY LAW “HURT” THEM AND THEIR FAMILIES:
Nick Begich claimed that the bill he voted for “restored” Medicaid’s “integrity,” but the reality is:
- An estimated 25,657 Alaskans have already lost their Medicaid, CHIP, or ACA coverage after Nick Begich and Republicans gutted health care.
- 29,000 Alaskans in total are anticipated to become uninsured between 2025 and 2034.
- 27,000 Alaskans were receiving tax credits to make their health care more affordable. Now premiums for Alaskans receiving ACA tax credits increased by an average of 346% this year:
-
- A 45-year-old in Alaska making $64,000 saw their average annual premium costs rise by $7,213 to hit $13,993 this year.
- A 60-year-old couple in Alaska making $85,000 saw their average annual premium costs rise by $43,589 to hit $52,598 this year.
- A family of four in Alaska making $130,000 saw their average annual premium costs rise by $25,793 to hit $39,594 this year.
ALASKA HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS AT RISK
- Now, thanks to Republicans gutting the premium tax credits and hiking Alaskans’ premiums, providers in Alaska will lose an additional $87 million in funding and face a 7% spike in uncompensated care demand.
- Alaska hospitals alone are expected to lose $881 million over the next decade. Seven health care providers in Alaska are already closed or at-risk of cuts or closure:
-
- AT-RISK: Cordova Community Medical Center (Cordova)
- AT-RISK: Ketchikan Medical Center (Healy)
- AT-RISK: Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center (Kodiak)
- AT-RISK: Providence Seward Medical & Care Center (Seward)
- AT-RISK: Providence Valdez Medical Center (Valdez)
- CLOSED: Identity Health Clinic (Anchorage)
- CLOSED: Interior Community Health Center (Healy)
VOICES FROM THE LAST FRONTIER
Erin from Alaska: “The executive director of two nonprofits, who also cares for her 89-year-old father full time, already pays nearly $500 a month for her premiums. If the subsidies disappear, she plans to forgo health insurance and pay for her asthma and allergy medications out of pocket. [Erin] Jackson-Hill said she worries about what will happen if her hip worsens and she can’t make it up the stairs in her father’s two-story home without treatment. ‘I will have to go to the emergency room, or I’ll have to go bankrupt in order to pay for it,’ she said.”
Brie from Anchorage: “Congress is ‘just punishing us for being small-business owners,’ said [Brie] Loidolt, who has weighed closing her business in response to the rise in health insurance costs. […] Without the extension of the subsidies, she’ll be paying more per month for her health insurance than she spends on her mortgage. ‘Who can afford to live when 30% of everything you bring in just pays for insurance and deductible?’ Loidolt said. […] Given rising health care costs, Loidolt said she is considering shutting down her business, laying off her employees and ending the accounting services she provides to roughly 40 small businesses.”
Mark from Anchorage: “‘I need my government, specifically my congressional delegation, to speak for me concerning the levers of power in this country, and I feel absolutely abandoned,’ said Mark Robokoff, who owns a pet supply shop in Anchorage and is staring down a more than 300% increase in the cost of insurance. ‘This will pull the rug out from under me,’ said Robokoff. ‘I thought I was doing the things that a society wants its members to do — create new businesses, create new jobs, improve the life of the surrounding community.’ […] ‘It’s an entirely new calculus. Everything is going to have to be looked at, from the prices I pay for merchandise, the quality that I try to stock, the amount that I pay my employees to keep the best ones — every single aspect of the store is going to have to be re-examined,’ he said.”
PREVIOUS FROM SAVE MY CARE:
###
