By Guy Page
The talking points for all sides are taking shape for next month’s likely congressional struggle over the future of subsidized health insurance – a/k/a Obamacare.
Vermont Democrats in Congress: repealing Obamacare would be catastrophic to Vermonters’ health care costs.
Democrats in Congress want to continue, and even expanded, government-funded health insurance. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch and Rep. Becca Balint held an online town hall last night in which they predicted doubling, tripling, even quadrupling of Vermonters’s health care insurance rates without the Obamacare subsidies many Republicans, including President Donald Trump, want to end.
“Republicans have no plan for health care, and they never have,” Balint said in an X post yesterday. “I’ll give you a plan: Medicare for All. Democrats are not giving up the fight for every American to have affordable health care.”
President Donald Trump: Without Obamacare subsidies and middlemen, Americans will spend less
With the expiration of Obamacare, President Donald Trump says it’s time to allow healthcare consumers to negotiate healthcare directly with providers.
The only healthcare I will support or approve is sending the money directly back to the people, with nothing going to the big, fat, rich insurance companies, who have made trillions, and ripped off America long enough,” Trump said on a Truth Social post. “The people will be allowed to negotiate and buy their own, much better, insurance.”
Lest any member of Congress think this merely a presidential suggestion, Trump added [all caps removed]:
“Congress, do not waste your time and energy on anything else. This is the only way to have great healthcare in America. Get it done, now!”
Vermont Republican Party: Obamacare doesn’t reduce costs
Vermont Republican Party Chair Paul Dame said the three members of Congress are “increasingly out of touch with the everyday realities facing Vermonters.”
“After listening to the call, it was clear that our Democrat-only delegation is increasingly out of touch with the everyday realities facing Vermonters,” Dame said. “Once paychecks resumed for federal workers and families received their SNAP benefits, they seemed to realize their shutdown strategy had backfired—and last night’s call looked like an attempt to change the subject.”
Dame noted that the rhetoric on the call was “overheated and unhelpful,” especially as Sen. Sanders warned that healthcare premiums could “double, triple or even quadruple.”
“Vermonters don’t need fearmongering — they need clear, straightforward information,” Dame said. “Insurance companies aren’t suddenly tripling their rates. The real issue is that the Affordable Care Act never delivered on its promise to control costs. Instead it relied on temporary subsidies—approved by Democrats—that are now expiring as planned. That’s a problem of their own making.”
Dame: Vermont rejected universal healthcare
Dame also expressed concern that all three members of the delegation used the call to again push for universal government-run healthcare.
“Vermont already tried that,” he said. “Democrats in Montpelier—working with a progressive governor they admired—determined that single payer was too expensive and simply didn’t work. It’s surprising to see our federal delegation ignore that clear lesson.”
The Vermont Legislature passed a single-payer plan, called Green Mountain Care, in 2011. However, after years of study, the plan was abandoned by Democrat Gov. Peter Shumlin because, he said, it was a good idea that simply cost too much. Neither Welch nor Balint, both former Vermont Senate Pro Tems, were in the Vermont Legislature at the time.