Col#263- 11/7/25
A DEADLY GAME
By
Richard Davis
October 1, 2025 may go down in history as the date that the United States form of government officially collapsed. As I write this, we are almost six weeks into the government shutdown. People are already beginning to suffer and things will only get worse if this does not end soon.
The Republicans (Trump) are saying that there is nothing to negotiate. House Speaker Mike Johnson has shut down the House and he shows no sign of being eager to do anything to help the American people. The Democrats are holding fast until the Republicans are willing to talk about health insurance and Medicaid cuts.
This situation could be looked at as a dream come true for the hardcore right wing. They rail against big government and they would love to see all of the government entitlement programs disappear. Food and fuel assistance are on hold, except in states where they have scraped up some money to help people. Medicaid has been cut so that millions of people will lose health insurance. None of this affects rich people and Washington politicians. The Republicans can rationalize anything and they could care less if they are causing the suffering and death of millions of Americans.
The big issue holding things up is health care. What is at stake? Tax credits have made health care affordable for millions of people insured under the Affordable Care Act. Those credits will expire without legislative renewal and the Republicans do not want to renew them. The Democrats are holding their ground until the credits are restored.
According to the Medscape web site, “The expiration of enhanced premium tax credits may leave an estimated 4 million people uninsured, and millions of other insured individuals and families will see their premiums increase. In addition, new legislation and marketplace regulation will create new, additional barriers to ACA enrollment that will likely cause an additional 3 million people to lose marketplace coverage. Worse, without coverage, patients are likely to delay or skip care, which could result in the need for more intensive treatments or emergency care in the emergency department or other high-cost health settings. A large uninsured population will also result in steep declines in healthcare spending.”
If the credits are not restored hospitals will bear a lot of the burden of unpaid care. People will wait until they are so sick that they have to go to the hospital and the hospital will have to care for them and hope they recover some of the cost of care. Hospitals will have to cut costs and programs. People will lose jobs and a vicious cycle will make things even worse.
A report on vtdigger points out that, “These “enhanced tax credits” became available to households earning more than 400% of the federal poverty line. The law capped the cost of premiums purchased by individuals and families on the marketplaces at 8.5% of a household’s income. Subsidies were also increased for many individuals already receiving credits, making health insurance premiums very low cost, or effectively free, for those households at the lowest income levels. In 2015, soon after Vermont Health Connect opened, 22,500 people on the marketplace received tax credits, according to an analysis by the Montpelier-based research group Public Assets Institute.”
Mike Fisher, Vermont’s Health Care Advocate explained to vtdigger, “…a family of three, for instance, earning $86,000 a year, 323% above the federal poverty level, would have paid $121 with the enhanced tax credits in 2025 for a standard Gold Plan through MVP and $330 for one from Blue Cross Blue Shield VT. This coming year, those same plans will cost $291 or $856, respectively.”
Fisher gave an example of a Vermont freelance writer who, “…paid a little less than $500 a month for a Gold Plan through MVP. Next year, without the subsidies, the cost will increase to $1,135 a month for the same plan — more than she pays each month for housing.”
The public seems to be telling the Democrats to hold out. The Republicans are showing no willingness to compromise. This stalemate is only one of many inhumane actions by Trump and his allies. Where will it end?
