RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) – As the government shutdown drags on, a battle over healthcare funding continues.
Democrats are pushing for a permanent extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credit extensions, which lower or eliminate insurance premiums for millions of Americans. They are set to expire at the end of the year.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates extending the subsidies permanently would cost approximately $350 billion over the next 10 years.
At a roundtable in Richmond on Monday morning, Senator Tim Kaine spoke with local businesses about a number of economic pressures, including cuts to Medicaid and rising healthcare costs.
“Let’s protect people’s healthcare premiums so they don’t spike,” Senator Tim Kaine said. “If they lose health insurance, then they don’t get healthcare, then they don’t get mental healthcare, and then pressures on homelessness increase and all kinds of other things happen.”
The chief administrative officer of Daily Planet Health Services, Brent Mast, was also in attendance.
His organization provides healthcare to underserved individuals by helping with case management, mental health services, and dental services.
Mast warned that losing insurance coverage would create a cascading effect throughout the healthcare system.
“People who are going into emergency rooms for care because they are no longer able to end up having insurance for small problems, and those small problems become big problems, and they are going to overwhelm our free clinics, federally qualified health centers, and ERs,” Mast said.
As the shutdown threat continues, Republicans maintain that healthcare discussions should occur after the government reopens.
“We’re barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history unless Democrats drop their partisan demands and pass a clean, no strings attached budget to reopen the government and pay our federal workers,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin echoed a similar remark on Monday, saying Virginia’s two Senators need to vote to get the government back open and then negotiate appropriations.
In a statement sent to 12 On Your Side, he said, in part:
“President Trump even came out and said, I’ll negotiate on healthcare, let’s talk about it, but get the government back open and yet Chuck Schumer, in order to protect his own political standing, I firmly believe, is holding America and Virginians hostage.”
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