Dear Senator:
On behalf of the AFL-CIO, a federation of 64 affiliate unions representing 15 million working people across our economy, I urge you to support Senator Schumer’s three-year clean extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits (S. 3385) and to oppose Senator Crapo’s bill to expand bare bones health care coverage coupled with a health savings account (S.3386) when these bills come to the Senate floor.
Senator Schumer’s bill, the Lower Health Care Costs Act, is the only viable option to ensure that affordable health care coverage can continue for nearly 4 million Americans who are in jeopardy of losing their insurance when enhanced ACA tax credits expire at the end of December. Immediate action on this legislation is needed to prevent health care premiums from doubling or tripling for almost 22 million people, and to protect the jobs of 130,000 health care workers. At this stage, this is the only approach that will protect working families from the harms to health and financial security that result from a lack of affordable access to care.
The legislation put forward by Senator Crapo as an alternative is a wholly inadequate approach to health care coverage. The Health Care Freedom for Patients Act, sponsored by Senators Crapo and Cassidy, steers families with ACA coverage toward bare bones coverage, with high deductibles and copays. Low-income families moving to bronze-level coverage under the Republican plan would see their deductibles jump from $52 to $6,513 a year on average, and they would see copays for a primary care visit climb from $4 to $77. Their costs would be even higher if they must accept a copper “catastrophic coverage” plan. The Crapo-Cassidy bill would provide $1,000 in a health savings account for people under 50 years old to help with out-of-pocket costs, but this is a small fraction of the added costs they will face. With 44% of U.S. adults reporting they find it difficult to afford health care (KFF), increasing their costs is exactly the wrong prescription. We are strongly opposed to this legislation that will deny health care to millions of families.
The Senate will consider these bills in the wake of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act (H.R. 1), which President Trump signed into law in July. That law has already begun to devastate the health care system, as more than a trillion dollars in Medicaid, CHIP, and ACA funding cuts begin to hit the states. Ten million people will lose their health insurance and find that local providers have shuttered and health care jobs have evaporated. Studies estimated that more than 300 hospitals will close, a quarter of nursing homes will close, and nearly 500,000 health care workers will lose their jobs. As hospitals and other providers lose paying customers, between $182 -$485 in extra costs will be passed along to people with job-based coverage each year.
It is important that the Senate not compound the damage done by H.R. 1. Support Sen. Schumer’s three-year extension of enhanced ACA credits and reject the Crapo-Cassidy alternative. Protect Americans from unaffordable health care costs and preserve our health care system. We must work to find a bipartisan consensus that health care costs must be lowered, not raised, for working families.
Sincerely,
Jody Calemine
Director, Government Affairs