As shutdown nears its end, Tammy Baldwin warns of rising health care costs

As the government shutdown approaches its end, Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin said Wisconsinites need more than just an open government — they need health care. 

Nearly all Americans enrolled in the Affordable Care Act marketplace receive tax credits to help them afford insurance plans. Democrats enhanced the subsidies in 2021 under President Joe Biden, saving the average person an estimated $700 per year, according to an analysis from the health research group KFF.

Senate Democrats, including Baldwin, initially demanded the credits be extended as part of any deal to end the government shutdown. But on Sunday, eight sided with Republicans to pass a bill to reopen the government without the credits. Senate Republicans promised a December vote on extending them. 

Baldwin opposed the bill because the tax credits were not included. At a press conference Wednesday, the senator warned that without them, health care costs could double, triple or more for 275,000 Wisconsinites. 

“The people I work for need more than that,” Baldwin said. “They need health care that they can afford, not a symbolic vote in the middle of December.”

Baldwin said she believes there needs to be more transparency around health care costs.

“In the short run, I want to work with my Republican colleagues, see what we can do to actually pass a tax credit extension through the Senate in the coming weeks,” Baldwin said. 

According to Politico, the legislative package to open the government would fund the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects, and the operations of Congress for the current fiscal year.

The Trump administration “strongly supports” the bill and said the president would sign it into law if it hit his desk.

Some of Wisconsin’s top Republicans had a decidedly different take on the tax credits as the shutdown standoff neared its finish.

Speaking to reporters in Milwaukee, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Minocqua, who is running for governor, said the government can “do better” than the Affordable Care Act.

“We need to go back and review the ACA,” he said “This is not working. Let’s sit down and get some alternatives to the American people.”

Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, who voted in favor of the bill to end the shutdown, said he believes most Americans won’t be affected if the credits expire. 

The Republican senator told WPR’s Wisconsin Today he thinks Democrats made a mistake with their standoff on Affordable Care Act credits because it’s “highlighted what a miserable failure Obamacare has been.”