Sullivan Votes to Relieve Alaskans from Obamacare’s Outrageous Costs
WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) issued the following statement after voting to advance both the Republican health care proposal and the Democrat proposal to extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits.
“Obamacare, the so-called Affordable Care Act, has not made health care more affordable. The law crashed Alaska’s health insurance market, dropping us from four insurers before Obamacare was enacted down to only one, eventually leaving us now with just two insurers. Premiums for Alaskans skyrocketed. Insurance companies got rich and Alaskans paid the price. It’s also important to note that congressional Democrats created these Covid-era Obamacare subsidies and their expiration cliff in a party-line vote on the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021. Then, in another party-line vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats chose to extend the life of these credits only until 2025—not even as long as they did for electric vehicle tax credits.
“Nevertheless, there is little doubt that a lot of hard-working Alaskans, families, entrepreneurs and small business owners will be negatively impacted if these enhanced premium tax credits expire. For that reason, I voted to move forward and consider both the Republicans’ and the Democrats’ proposed legislation. I offered amendments to both bills that would extend the enhanced premium tax credits for two years, include income caps, bar illegal immigrants from receiving these benefits, and include at least a nominal payment for all plans to clamp down on fraud and abuse which was recently documented by the Government Accountability Office. Now that both the Republican and Democrat proposals failed to advance, I will redouble my efforts to develop a compromise solution. In the longer-term, we need to focus on getting federal government health care dollars out of the hands of insurance companies and into the hands of the people.”
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