By Adam Pagnucco.
I have known Delegate Marc Korman for a long time. (He was once my co-writer on Maryland Politics Watch, the first site where I wrote through 2010.) Korman is a serious policy wonk, especially on transportation issues (over which he presides in the House of Delegates), and in a recent email, he gave his take on the reasons for the federal government shutdown. Korman’s explanation is worth considering and I reprint it below.
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Dear Adam:
As I write this, the federal shutdown has stretched over two weeks. The impacts of the shutdown are significant but in an area like ours–so closely tied to the federal government–the effects can be deeply felt. If you are being adversely affected, here are some important resources:
State of Maryland: Maryland Workers Impacted by the Federal Government Shutdown
Montgomery County: Resources for Workers Impacted by Recent Federal Government Actions
What is the shutdown all about? I think it can be fairly complicated to consider how we got to the point where Democrats decided to use a shutdown to achieve policy ends when for about 30 years it has been considered a Democratic Party red line and why trust between the majority and minority parties is so low. But in its simplest form, it is all about healthcare. I did a brief explanation of this with my daughter that you can watch here.
Congressional Democrats are asking for is an expansion of “Premium Tax Credits,” a tax benefit that has been in place since 2021 to make Obamacare (also known as healthcare from the Affordable Care Act) more affordable. Without extending these tax credits, the cost of healthcare will rise for many Marylanders.
Obamacare has been successful in Maryland. Prior to Obamacare, 12% of the population was uninsured. Today it is 6%. That means many people now have access to healthcare for themselves and their families beyond the emergency room.
The two major access points for expanding access to insurance were (1) Medicaid expansion, for some of the neediest families, and (2) Access to obtain insurance through the Obamacare exchanges, which have varying levels of subsidies depending on income. And, in case you were wondering, neither Medicaid or exchange subsidies are available to undocumented immigrants.
The President and Republican Majority in Congress made changes to Medicaid through legislation–called reconciliation–that I have discussed before. Now they are allowing the premium tax credits to expire. If the premium tax credits expire, many more Marylanders will not be able to afford healthcare and will drop out. But that does not just affect them, shrinking the pool of insured will increase health insurance premiums on all of those still buying healthcare.
In Maryland, that means an average increase of 13.4% for insurance premiums. In the years the premiums applied, increases were between 2.1% and 6.2%. Still a challenge for many but much better than a 13.4% increase.
Maryland has done what it can on its own. The Maryland Insurance Administration approved increases by the Maryland providers that were 3.7% lower than what the insurance companies requested (absent that action, the increase would have been 17.1%). And we passed HB 1082, which would create state-level subsidies for three years to help mitigate the impacts. But the real long-term solution lies in Congress and now–as Marylanders are starting to get insurance premium notices in the mail and making their end of year decisions about healthcare enrollment–is the time for Congress to act.
I will just share one more observation about the shutdown. The current president is the first I am aware of who does not even aspire to or pretend to lead and represent all of the people. He has openly stated that he is weaponizing the shutdown against blue states and what he calls “Democrat Programs” (perhaps he means programs created under Democratic Presidents like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid). And this is after months of non-shutdown-related similar talk and action. For those who say the harm he is inflicting is so great that the Democrats should simply fold, I am reminded of an episode of The West Wing (a common thought process for Democratic politicians of a certain age).
In the fifth season premiere of that show, President Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen) has relinquished the presidency to the Speaker of the House (played by John Goodman) because his daughter has been kidnapped. In the Situation Room, the Chief of Staff is advising against a certain military operation because, he says, if the U.S. does it, the kidnappers will kill the First Daughter. John Goodman responses calmly, “They’re going to kill her anyway.”
That is how I feel about the President’s threats to blue states, government programs, and federal employees. Whatever he is doing or threatening to do during the shutdown is on his to do list anyway and if healthcare affordability is worth fighting for, now is the time to do it.