By Tracci Johnson
Guest Column
$284.00
It is my monthly health care premium. It doesn’t even include the $100 out-of-pocket costs for doctor visits, prescriptions or emergencies or my $7,500 deductible. Donald Trump and congressional Republicans hiked health care premiums for thousands of Ohioans like me. Ohioans can’t simply budget around cost hikes like this.
Last summer, congressional Republicans, including Ohio’s Senator John Husted, pushed through massive health care cuts, slashing more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and the ACA to bankroll tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. As a result, health care costs are becoming unaffordable for everyone, and Republicans are throwing millions off their coverage.
Across Ohio, hospitals and clinics are folding, and 1 in 10 rural hospitals that remain open in Ohio are already at risk of closure. Now, 14 Ohio hospitals and clinics are at-risk, four have announced cuts, three wards have closed, and eight have closed their doors altogether.
Republicans went even further and ripped away the ACA tax credits that helped more than 22 million Americans, including over 500,000 Ohioans, like me, afford coverage — causing monthly premiums to rise by hundreds and even thousands of dollars.
By attacking and undermining the ACA, Senator Husted is forcing working people to pay more for less: higher premiums, higher deductibles, and fewer options.
When the ACA was signed into law by President Obama 16 years ago, it finally felt like affordable care was possible. People often forget what health care was like back then. Where you lived determined how much insurance companies could charge you for coverage. Being a woman was treated as a pre-existing condition. And if you are one of the 129 million Americans like me with a pre-existing condition, like diabetes, high blood pressure, and even cancer, insurance companies could deny coverage or overcharge us for care.
Today, as a direct result of policies passed by Trump and GOP lawmakers, one in three Americans skip meals or other needs to afford health care. One in three Americans who rely on the ACA say they’ll have to downgrade to skimpier, riskier plans that could leave them in crippling medical debt if they get sick. Nearly one in ten Americans are postponing retirement because of skyrocketing health care costs. And nearly half of U.S. adults say it’s difficult to afford health care costs. No one should have to choose between staying healthy and risking financial ruin.
But instead of focusing on lowering costs, Senator Husted is making health care unaffordable.
There is a lot of uncertainty and chaos in the world today. Gas prices are way too high, and wars are unfolding abroad. But this ACA anniversary, we need to raise the alarm on the attacks happening in our own backyard — the attacks on the ACA.
Tracci Johnson is the Executive Director of Monroe Street Neighborhood
Center and buys insurance under the ACA and takes advantage of the tax
credits. The Affordable Care Act tax credits have been a lifeline for her.
They allowed her to take a job without health insurance, knowing she could
afford coverage on the marketplace.