Democratic Idaho legislator calls on Congress to extend health insurance tax credits

Originally published Oct. 9 on IdahoCapitalSun.com.

With open enrollment on Idaho’s health insurance exchange starting next week, Idaho State Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow called on Congress to extend health insurance tax credits and end the shutdown of the U.S. government.

Wintrow, D-Boise, participated in an online press conference Thursday with U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, as the partial shutdown of the federal government was in its ninth day. 

“I am overwhelmed with calls from people all over the state who are frustrated and afraid about the things that are happening in their health care,” Wintrow said. 

Open enrollment on the Your Health Idaho health insurance exchange, where Idahoans can apply for a tax credit and enroll in a health insurance plan for next year, opens Oct. 15 and runs through Dec. 15. 

Murray warned that unless Congress extends the tax credits originally passed in 2021, thousands of Idahoans on the state’s health exchange will see “a huge spike in their health care costs.” Without those credits, 25,000 Idahoans are likely to cancel their insurance policies — as average premiums are expected to double, Pat Kelly, executive director of Your Health Idaho, previously told the Idaho Capital Sun.

“But Republicans don’t want to talk about it. And they have refused to do anything about it. In fact, Republicans have chosen to shut down the government rather than work with Democrats on a solution to stop this from happening. So here’s my feeling on this: if Republicans don’t want to level with their own constituents about what is at stake, I am happy to do it,” Murray said.

Wintrow said unless Congress extends enhanced premium tax credits, those credits will expire at the end of the year and thousands of Idahoans would see their health insurance premiums increase or be unable to afford health insurance all together.

“In less than a week … we’ll have open enrollment, and the threats of these increases are serious and skyrocketing,” Wintrow said. 

The federal government began shutting down Oct. 1 after Congress was unable to pass a budget or continuing funding resolution before the new fiscal year began.

“We are talking about families with kids,” Murray said. “We are talking about seniors, retirees who aren’t old enough for Medicare but desperately need health coverage. We are talking about countless farmers, small business owners, and freelancers. If Republicans continue refusing to act, then next week, families across Idaho are going to come face to face with premiums they simply cannot afford.”

Idahoans share concerns over whether they’ll be able to afford health insurance without tax credits

During the press conference, two retired Idahoans, Bob McMichael of Council and Susan Wood of Boise, said they are worried they won’t be able to afford health insurance if the tax credits are not extended. 

Wood said she bought a health insurance plan on the exchange and received a tax credit of $580, which brought her premium down to $72 a month. But if the tax credit goes away, Wood said she would be looking at an increase of 900% if nothing else changes in her current plan.

“This is just a crisis, and we are falling off of a cliff,” said Wood, who worked in the insurance industry before retiring. “It’s an impossible situation that needs to be fixed for the long term. But the immediate solution is for our representatives to work together (in Congress) and approve the advanced tax credit so insurance companies can file and make their new plans with certainty, U.S. citizens can retain their health coverage at a reasonable premium and we can move on with our lives.”

Meanwhile, Republicans blamed Democrats for the shutdown, saying the Democrats are refusing to budge from spending priorities and unwilling to work with Republicans. 

“Democrats, not Republicans, set the expiration date on the Biden administration’s enhanced Obamacare credits,” U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, told the Sun in a statement earlier this week. “These are temporary, COVID-era subsidies. If Democrats wanted to extend them beyond the pandemic, turning them into a defacto entitlement program, they had every opportunity to do so during the Biden administration. They did not. Now, they are using it as a ploy to shut down the government and extort nearly $1.5 trillion in federal spending increases.”