Trumpflation

If you voted for Trump because you wanted to pay vastly higher healthcare premiums, you might be getting lucky:

Earlier this month, Julie Morringello, an artist in rural Maine, received a notice that her health care premiums could nearly double next year.

She now pays $460 a month for her Obamacare plan, but that amount is contingent on government subsidies that the Republican-controlled Congress may not extend.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Ms. Morringello, 58, said. Her insurance also covers her 14-year-old daughter, and forgoing a plan altogether isn’t an option because Ms. Morringello has a history of cancer and needs continuing care.

Similar sticker shock may await millions of Americans who must start to sign up for coverage in November. The vast majority of people enrolled in plans under the Affordable Care Act receive additional federal tax credits that were first expanded by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Congress in 2021.

Those subsidies, set to expire at the end of the year, are now the subject of a standoff between Democratic and Republican lawmakers. Democratic leaders in both the House and Senate have demanded an extension in exchange for their support of a government spending bill that must pass by the end of this month to prevent a government shutdown.

I still think that agreeing to a temporary extension of benefits would be a mistake for congressional Dems, but as long as Trump refuses to negotiate at all it’s a moot point.