Obamacare subsidies expire this month. Many Republicans are shrugging.
Obamacare premiums are set to spike for tens of millions of Americans next month. Plenty of rank-and-file Republicans are happy to sit back and ride it out.
Some vulnerable GOP lawmakers up for reelection are scrambling for a last-minute fix to renew the enhanced federal health care subsidies keeping costs down. But even if party leaders and Donald Trump were to rally around a plan in the coming days — and there’s no sign of that happening — many conservatives are likely to revolt.
Democrats have vowed to hammer the GOP in the midterms if they allow the federal aid to expire, but many on the right expect the political fallout to be minimal, or even to backfire on Democrats. For other conservatives, any blowback will be worth it if it means they get to rein in a system the party has fundamentally opposed since its launch more than a decade ago.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/03/obamacare-subsidies-expire-this-month-many-republicans-are-shrugging-00672949Open linkView original on lemmy.world
34 replies
Remember Republicans don't think a problem exists until it hurts them personally.
They won't even think it's caused by the Trump admin anyway, they'll either blame Joe Biden or some other strawman.
Yeah this is the sad truth of it. And they were too distracted during the shutdown to listen to what the dems were saying. The whole thing was about trying to keep these subsidies. And then when maga see their premiums skyrocket they'll unironically blame dems and Biden.
These are the dolts that sit there and lap up blatant nonsense about how Taco and thugs are trying to "dig out of" some kind of alleged mess that Biden totally didn't leave behind.
I will seriously talk to chuds that are doing just fine and claim that they were not doing fine under Biden. When pressed, they will admit that, well, they weren't really doing all that bad at all, but that maybe it's a problem that someone like ME (and of course POC, and LGBTQ, etc) was also not actually miserable under Biden.
Not even kidding about that last part. These assholes actually object to liberals such as myself doing well. They are fine; but having others they don't approve of doing fine is not acceptable. When that video went viral in his first term about how he was not hurting who he was supposed to be hurting, that went viral for a reason. Because so many people had conversations much like I have had with these people - it's not enough that they are doing okay; others have to be miserable, and the miserable people need to be people unlike them. If you voted blue, you should be living hand to mouth.
It's a GOOD THING we have Chuck Schumer and the Democrats to Look OUT for us! I'm SURE the Conversation they TRADED AWAY LITERALLY EVERYTHING FOR is going to happen Soon!
Are you trying to paint the Democrats as the bad guys here? It's their fault that the Republicans are stripping away safety nets?
Edit: I guess the answer here is "yes".
I believe it's a reference to the very real fact Chuck Schumer gave us a month of government shutdown to save ACA subsidies and then gave up with nothing to show for but a vague promise of a floor vote on the subsidies in January.
But Schumer didn't give up? Other senators did...
Either Schumer didn't want it, in which case he's lost control of the caucus and should no longer be minority leader
Or he privately did, but publicly denounced it, meaning the same as above.
Either way, it's ultimately his responsibility that this happened.
But surely it's just a total coincidence that every non Republican who voted yes is not up for reelection in 2026, right? /s
I'm in VA. Tim Kaine voted yes. I've messaged him demanding an explanation and that coward fuckface piece of shit still hasn't responded. I contacted my other Senator, Mark Warner, and asked him to publicly denounce Kaine's vote or else I would be supporting a primary opponent. He gave a bullshit response about supporting federal workers. So I'll be looking for somebody with a fucking spine to replace his bitch-ass. I'm sick of these fucking losers selling us out to fascists. They're gonna push us all too far, and the most desperate people will do unthinkable things, and they'll wonder how it all got to be so chaotic and unstable and bloody.
And they wonder why Luigi was so popular.
Dick Durbin gave me a bullshit reply.
Fuck him.
Who do you think directed them to?
Look, I'm usually the first one to call out people who blame Democrats for bullshit that Republicans get away with...
However, in this case, the Democrats completely shit the bed by ending the shutdown for literally nothing, one week after Democrats won decidedly in several elections across the nation.
So yeah, in this case, fuck the Democrats for letting it come to this.
Eight dems betrayed the US for 20 sheckles.
Bold of you to assume they even got 20 sheckles.
It was 14 sheckles, but they had to divide them between the eight of them.
The women didn't get the two extra from the 20.
Republicans are always looking for small populations to fuck over. There's only ~25M people on ACA, or about 7% of the population. The rules are complicated and mostly hidden behind automatic calculations done by marketplace websites, so most people's experience is just that the website gives them a price list and they choose one to pay. Can't tell if price hikes are due to actual insurance company rate hikes, changes in the tax credit structure, or their own increased income.
For politicians, it's a pretty safe bet that the size of the affected population and obscurity of the cost structure will prevent any serious organized blowback. Insurance companies are going to be scapegoats for this.
You’d think it was like half the country given the media coverage, but nope, 25 million. Redistrict ‘em. Everyone else’s insurance goes up anyways because capitalism is the ultimate hellscape.
My wife has had an ACA plan for years. It’s $98/month in 2025, but is jumping to $354 in January.
I’m on COBRA and almost switched to the marketplace because it’s so expensive, but seeing what 2026 premiums are it’s actually cheaper for me to stay on COBRA. I never thought I’d utter the words “cheaper” and “COBRA” in the same sentence.
That's fucking insane. COBRA is insultingly expensive
Isn't COBRA just how much your previous employer premiums cost (without the employer contribution)?
Pretty much, I think. Turns out most employers contribute quite a big portion of it.
Then cobra isn't necessarily insultingly expensive, it depends on the plan, no?
And it's really just that health insurance in general is insultingly expensive in the US
Have you ever looked at what it actually costs? It's outrageous.
Not going to argue with that.
Again by "it" you mean "my specific employer's health plan". COBRA itself doesn't cost anything.
And yes.
Yes...? The fuck is your problem?
Republicans are not shrugging, they are actively cheering it on.
Guns were already cheaper than healthcare.
For most Americans, that IS healthcare.
But but we were promised a vote?!
Did they watch to much Breaking Bad. As in stop the drugs from Venezuela and onshore drug production to the US using some badly paid chemistry teachers?