Health care expansion in rescue plan answers a need for Ohioans
With the American Rescue Plan’s recent passage, President Joe Biden and Democrats are fulfilling their promise to expand health coverage to Americans struggling during this pandemic.
Republicans in Congress cannot say the same, after universally and shamefully opposing a bill that would help Ohioans who are facing daily struggles due to the pandemic.
Republicans are putting partisan politics before their constituents. Their approach would leave Ohioans reeling from the pandemic without access to health care at a time when they need it most.
The American Rescue Plan puts Ohioans first. At its core are the frontline health care workers, the unemployed who find themselves without health coverage and the families struggling to make ends meet. Republicans voted against direct checks for Americans, money for vaccine distribution and reopening schools and our economy.
That is precisely why the overwhelming majority of the American people support the American Rescue Plan. Polling shows that 77% of voters support the law’s provision to lower health care costs for people who lost coverage.
For years, Republicans in Congress have fervently opposed any meaningful improvements or expansion of the Affordable Care Act to cover more individuals. They have voted time and time again to repeal the Affordable Care Act, working to strip away health coverage from millions of people. Yet, for more than a decade, the ACA has helped keep Americans healthy and financially stable.
The American Rescue Plan builds on that success by strengthening the ACA, lowering health insurance premiums and increasing coverage. The American Rescue Plan includes essential provisions to expand access to health care across Ohio, including a measure temporarily expanding the eligibility for premium tax credits above 400% of the federal poverty level.
An Ohio family of four with a household income of $120,000 would save $595 in monthly premiums, and a 45-year-old Ohioan earning $60,000 would save $86 in monthly premiums. And the plan improves affordability for low- and middle-income Ohioans by offering more extensive tax credits for all income brackets over the next two years.
Since March 2020, roughly 70 million Americans, including more than 2 million Ohioans, have filed for unemployment, and millions have become uninsured. The American Rescue Plan provides federal support for state Medicaid programs and aims to increase access to affordable health care by incentivizing expansion in states that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
Republicans’ efforts to undermine our health care system have left millions of people uninsured and have left our country inadequately prepared to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Ohioans want to move beyond efforts to undermine and eliminate essential health care programs. We want leaders who will prioritize our health during a pandemic over partisan politics and policies that only benefit those at the top. Now more than ever, Ohioans are relying on access to affordable health care, and votes against the American Rescue Plan stand against access to health care, ending the pandemic and firmly on the wrong side of history.
Kristin Boggs represents the 18th District of the Ohio House of Representatives, which consists of Columbus, Bexley, Grandview Heights and parts of central Franklin County.