Oregon Senators Urge Republicans to Cut Healthcare Costs to End Shutdown
Oregon Democratic U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley say Republicans should cut healthcare costs, not overburden taxpayers by increasing premiums, to end the federal government shutdown that has been ongoing since October 1.
Healthcare Costs Remain Government Shutdown Sticking Point
The government partly shut down after Congress failed to reach an agreement on federal funding. Healthcare remains the sticking point for Democrats after the October 1 Government Shutdown forced about 2 million federal workers to stay at home without pay and furloughed an additional 750,000 workers.
Since the government shutdown began, Republicans and Democrats have been blaming each other.
Democrats have pushed to extend ObamaCare subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of 2025, but Republicans say these subsidies drive up healthcare costs. Senator Wyden said he has ideas for controlling costs and will make them available to Republicans.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as ObamaCare, is a set of rules issued by the federal government that allows healthcare insurers to offer plans, specifically subsidizing people and families based on their income, relative to the Federal Poverty Level (FPL).
After former President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan during the COVID-19 pandemic, the subsidies expanded access to ObamaCare to more Americans and lowered out-of-pocket costs.
These benefits were extended to 2025 by a Democrat-led Congress under the Inflation Reduction Act, and Democrats warn that many Americans’ healthcare costs are at risk of drastically rising if the enhanced subsidies expire.
The effect would mean that Americans will feel financial pain and be denied the benefits of the COVID-era enhancements that contributed to inflated prices.
Senator Jeff Merkley confirmed that, for example, 32,000 people in Multnomah County depend on the ACA exchange tax credits.
Of these, around a quarter will lose those tax credits completely, while the other three-quarters will experience greatly diminished tax credits. He said, “We are talking about, in Oregon, a 68% projected average increase, an average increase of $1,300 per person.”
In the meantime, Democrat Representative Richard Neal of the House Ways & Means Committee blamed President Donald Trump’s policies for driving up costs across the board.
On X, he said, “People are already feeling the sticker shock of their skyrocketing 2026 health care premiums. We’re here in Washington ready to do something about it, but Republicans need to be here too.”
Why is it called the Affordable Care act if it needs to have subsidies to be affordable? Why is a continuing resolution not acceptable when everything that was being covered up until the shutdown will still be covered?