‘Cancer is not red or blue’: Florida Democrats spotlight human toll of rising insurance costs

As politicians deadlock in Washington, Skylar Trujillo, a Florida mother with breast cancer, is scared she won’t be able to find the low-cost health insurance she needs during her treatment.

Trujillo, 29, said pandemic-era subsidies allowed her to secure coverage for $14 a month through the Affordable Care Act, informally known as Obamacare.

But that help is set to expire at the end of the year, an issue that is at the center of the ongoing government shutdown that has now dragged into a new month.

“That $14 premium is saving my life,” said Trujillo, a Spring Hill mother of four who was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer and spoke at a Florida Democratic Party news conference Monday. “For my premium to go up … to even $50 a month, it would potentially push my family over a financial cliff. I will have to choose between continuing my care, paying my rent and feeding my children.”

Spotlighting stories like Trujillo’s, Florida Democrats are ratcheting up pressure on Republicans over the higher cost of Obamacare plans. Some people are seeing their premiums double, if not triple or more. Much of that increase is being driven by the expiration of enhanced subsidies enacted in 2021 during former President Joe Biden’s administration.

The issue will have an outsized impact on Florida, which has about 4.7 million Obamacare enrollees. That’s more than any other state. It’s estimated that as many as a third of Floridians with these plans may drop their coverage because of the rising costs, sending the state’s uninsured rate soaring.

U.S. Rep. Darren Soto’s Orlando-area district has the fourth-highest Obamacare enrollment in the country, according to an analysis by the health policy organization KFF. More than 270,000 people — about 30% of the district — are enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans.

“Cruelty is the point,” said Soto, a Democrat who represents Kissimmee and St. Cloud. “They’d rather keep the government closed than negotiate lower health care costs. … We need to come together in a bipartisan way to save Obamacare, to lower health care costs.”

Soto and other Democrats are pushing for the subsidies to be extended as part of a deal to reopen the government.

It would cost about $23 billion to extend the subsidies for a year, or $350 billion over the next decade, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.

Republican leaders have insisted they’ll only negotiate when the government is reopened. In a “60 Minutes” interview, President Donald Trump said he won’t be “extorted” by Democratic demands for negotiations to extend subsidies.

Asked for the Republican plan for lowering health care costs, Evan Power, chairman of the Florida GOP, called Obamacare “broken” but did not offer specific details of his desired policy changes.

“It’s time for the Democrats to reopen government so we can have a discussion about replacing their failed health care plans,” he said.

Other Republicans, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, have argued the country needs to rethink insurance policies. Speaking at an event last month, DeSantis, for example, said he thinks people 50 years and younger would benefit from “a catastrophic plan that is affordable” rather than more comprehensive coverage.

But Florida Democrats want the subsidies that make insurance more affordable for so many state residents to continue. To make their case, and up the pressure on the GOP, they plan to deploy mobile billboards in Osceola, Miami-Dade and Duval counties with the message, “Groceries or medicine? You shouldn’t have to choose.”

‘Huge sticker shock’: Floridians get first look at Obamacare price hikes

Speaking at a news conference in Orlando, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost said any discussion about a post-Affordable Care Act health care policy should be focused on extending Medicare to all Americans, not taking away health care. He called for an extension of the subsidies, which he said have been a “lifeline for families already stretched thin” by the rising cost of living.

“They preach America First. … There is nothing America First about letting Americans die,” the Orlando Democrat said. “Die because they don’t have health care. Die because they can’t afford their prescription drugs.”

Trujillo, the Florida mother with cancer, said she hopes a solution is found soon. She is unable to work because of her debilitating treatment and is also facing the loss of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, or food stamps, during the shutdown.

“Cancer is not red or blue,” she said. “It is not Republican or Democratic. Anybody is one diagnosis away from cancer.”

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