Biden talks up health insurance cost cuts

COLUMBUS, Ohio — President Biden pledged Tuesday that his $1.9 trillion rescue package would build on the promise of the Affordable Care Act, the hallmark legislation of Barack Obama’s presidency that became law 11 years ago.

Biden’s COVID19 relief law pumps up “Obamacare” premium subsidies to address longstanding problems of affordability, particularly for people with middleclass incomes. More taxpayer assistance means, in effect, that consumers who buy their own policies through HealthCare.gov will pay hundreds of dollars less out of their own pockets.

“We have a duty not just to protect it, but to make it better and keep becoming a nation where health care is a right for all, not a privilege for a few,” Biden said at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “Millions of families will be able to sleep a little more soundly at night because they don’t have to worry about losing everything if they get sick.”

Biden’s speech in the capital of a political battleground state is part of a miniblitz by the White House to highlight the relief package. Newly minted Health Secretary Xavier Becerra will echo Biden’s comments Tuesday in Carson City, Nev., and join a Floridathemed Zoom event.

Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff will pitch the aid in Omaha, Neb.

On health care, the numbers suggest that consumers’ fears about medical costs could be eased by the new rescue package.

The COVID19 legislation cuts premiums paid by a hypothetical 64yearold making $58,000 from $1,075 a month to about $413, based on Congressional Budget Office estimates. A 45yearold making $19,300 would pay zero in premiums as compared with about $67 on average before the law. People who have even a brief spell of unemployment this year can get a standard plan for zero premium and reduced copays and deductibles.

“The ACA is over a decade old and this is literally the first time that Democrats have been successful at improving it,” said analyst Larry Levitt of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. “Democrats have succeeded politically by selling the ACA’s protections for preexisting conditions, but affordability has always been a challenge.”

The COVID19 bill follows Biden’s strategy of building on the Obamaera health law to move the U.S. toward coverage for all.

Another provision offers a dozen or so holdout states led by Republicans a financial inducement to expand Medicaid to more lowincome adults. So far there have been no takers.