The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports there might be a reason Democrats are sticking to their guns on pressing President Donald Trump to extend health insurance subsidies. Less clear until now, however, was how much red states will benefit from their effort.
“Georgia is expected to lose about 33,600 jobs next year if federal subsidies on the Affordable Care Act marketplace exchange expire,” according to a new forecast by George Washington University. Georgia’s job loss would be the “third worst … following Texas and Florida.”
“Enhanced subsidies, enacted by the Biden administration during the pandemic to help many Americans afford health insurance, are at the center of a federal government shutdown that is entering its third week,” reports the AJC. “Health insurance premiums will rise for millions of Americans unless they are extended.”
But jobs would also be on the line, said experts, with roughly 340,000 jobs lost across the nation. Some would be in the health sector, but more than half would not, according to the AJC. This will include people who do business with health workers, from landlords to construction crews to lunch counters, not just pharmacies, doctors and hospitals.
“The first hit is to healthcare,” said Leighton Ku, director of the Center for Health Policy Research at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health. “After that, it spreads out quickly.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports about 1.5 million people signed up for Georgia Access just this year, and enrollment now stands at 1.35 million.
Of those, about 460,000 are expected to go uninsured as a result of both the expiring subsidies and other changes made under the Trump administration, according to the health research organization KFF.
Congressional Republicans are largely standing firm against extending the subsidies, but the AJC reports people are already window-shopping next year’s premium prices and are panicking at the new numbers. And rural areas are expected to hurt even more, say experts.
“If you have a nurse who’s fully employed, a lot of times she is the main breadwinner in that family,” said Monty Veazey, president of the Georgia Alliance of Community Hospitals. “So, she loses her job, and then they have to go out of the area to look for another job, and the husband has to quit his job, whatever that might be, to move with them.”
“There may be 34,000 jobs lost,” Veazey said. “But there’s going to be more affected.”
Read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution report at this link.