“None of the three Republican hopefuls […] have meaningfully addressed how to mitigate the jolt in costs.”
While Georgians brace for skyrocketing ACA premiums without an extension of crucial tax credits, Republicans like GOP U.S. Senate candidates Rep. Buddy Carter, Rep. Mike Collins, and Derek Dooley haven’t “meaningfully addressed how to mitigate the jolt in costs” for 1.4 million Georgians, according to new reporting from Politico.
Despite the fact that “over 90 percent of those enrollees use the federal subsidies to afford their insurance,” Carter and Collins voted to make premiums skyrocket by as much as 296% and 345% for an average 60-year-old couple living in their districts, respectively. Meanwhile, Derek Dooley has stood by the GOP agenda to rip away affordable health care.
POLITICO: Republicans face a health care backlash in Georgia as subsidies set to expire
By: Alec Hernandez | 11.24.25
KEY EXCERPTS:
- Republicans across the country are in a bind of President Donald Trump’s making: After voting to end the 43-day federal shutdown, they have yet to articulate a plan to tackle the upcoming spike in health care premiums.
- That conundrum is coming into sharp relief in Georgia, a state with an especially high reliance on the Affordable Care Act […]
- Georgia Republicans running to unseat Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff are avoiding talking about health care in their crowded primary […]
- One study from the Georgia Health Initiative projected premiums will more than double, on average, after the planned Dec. 31 expiration of the subsidies.
- As the Republican leadership trifecta in Washington scrambles to address that imminent spike in premiums for millions of Americans, health care costs are emerging as a new flashpoint in next year’s midterm elections.
- Polling shows staunch nationwide support for the Affordable Care Act, with 64 percent of Americans holding a positive view of the policy […]
- That includes two-thirds support among independent voters, who will be crucial for either party’s success next year.
- And in Georgia, where nearly 15 percent of the population is enrolled in marketplace health insurance, Republicans stand to bear the brunt of voters’ ire if their party fails to offset those looming price hikes.
- None of the three Republican hopefuls running in what will be one of the most competitive Senate races in the country next year have meaningfully addressed how to mitigate the jolt in costs.
- Like most Republicans, the two Georgia candidates holding House seats — Mike Collins and Buddy Carter — voted to end the shutdown without addressing the looming expiration in subsidies.
- And the third candidate, former football coach Derek Dooley, has yet to take a position on how he would approach legislating a solution.
- Over 1.5 million Georgians rely on the state-based exchange known as Georgia Access for insurance, making the Peach State host to the fourth-highest marketplace enrollment in the country […]
- Over 90 percent of those enrollees use the federal subsidies to afford their insurance.
- But when the subsidies expire at the end of the year, 340,000 of those enrolled are projected to lose their insurance as premium prices skyrocket, per the Georgia Health Initiative projection.
- “Rural Georgians are going to feel this in a bigger way than those of us who live in the metro Atlanta area,” [Laura Colbert] added, saying “folks that live in rural areas tend to be older and so therefore premiums are already a lot higher in those regions.”