When Congress allowed covid-era subsidies for health insurance to expire, California used its own funds to offset the hike in Obamacare premium costs for residents with low incomes.
But the reach has been limited.
As Gov. Gavin Newsom negotiates his last budget with the legislature, the Democrat wants to offer financial help to more than 1 in 4 enrollees in Covered California, the nation’s largest state-run health insurance marketplace. Democratic lawmakers, who hold a supermajority, are still debating the plan.
“My budget proposal would KEEP $0 monthly plans for low-income Californians to help clean up the financial disaster Trump created,” Newsom posted on Facebook, where he often chides the president and GOP Congress.
Ten blue states have put up their own funds to keep Affordable Care Act plans affordable and residents insured as the rising cost of healthcare has emerged as a top concern among voters. Newsom’s $300 million proposal would make California’s program among the most generous, but even the nation’s richest state can’t patch a $2.5 billion hole left by the expiration of enhanced subsides at the end of last year.
“The gap between what people can pay in their monthly budget and what health insurance costs is so big that it’s a lot for states to take on,” said Stacey Pogue, a senior research fellow at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University. “They’re going to have to figure out how they can finance that.”
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New Mexico lawmakers have backfilled 100% of the lost federal subsidies with state money. It seems to have worked; New Mexico saw double-digit increases in marketplace enrollment this year, but state analysts have warned tha …