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Democrats’ Obamacare lies reveal how flimsy their government shutdown excuses actually are
By Post Editorial Board
Published Oct. 25, 2025, 9:25 a.m. ET
Strip away the lies about Obamacare subsidies set to expire this year, and Democrats’ main excuse for shutting the government goes up in smoke.
Above all else, Dems claim they’re looking to protect health care, that expiring Bamcare subsidies will send premiums soaring and cost many their coverage.
The truth? Premiums are expected to rise by $1,665, or 20%, on average, a Paragon Health Institute study found — yet the expiring subsidies account for only four of those percentage points, or just $333.
Fact is, most ObamaCare subsidies are not expiring.
What’s set to vanish is merely the added cash Democrats in Congress agreed to pay insurers (using taxpayer money) during COVID. That’s it.
The COVID add-ons increased the taxpayers’ share of premiums to a whopping 93%, on average; for nearly half the enrollees, it was 100%.
With the sweeteners gone, taxpayers will foot “only” 80% of the bill — still far higher than the 68% they covered in 2014, when Obamacare first got going.
Those making below the federal poverty level will pay just $180 a year for a silver-tier plan.
Meanwhile, premiums have tripled from pre-Obamacare levels, from about $3,200 to nearly $10,000.
And, remember, it was Democrats who set the Dec. 31 expiration date for the COVID-era boosts. Now they want to make them permanent at a 10-year cost of nearly
half a trillion dollars.
Just what Uncle Sam needs as the national debt surpasses $38 trillion.
If “these credits expire, people go bankrupt, people will get sick, some will die,” screams Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Bull. In fact, the loss of the COVID subsidy-enhancers won’t even saddle many enrollees with much higher costs or force them to lose health care.
Heck, half of those getting fully subsidized plans don’t even use them: They file zero claims during the year.
Why is that? Because they don’t even know they have Obamacare; unscrupulous brokers signed them up without their knowledge. Many rely on other insurance for their medical needs.
Indeed, in 15 states, enrollees claiming income between 100% and 150% of the poverty level were twice the number who actually lived there.
Note, too, that federal subsidies are paid directly to insurers, so taxpayers are shelling out billions to companies to “cover” folks who get nothing
It’s madness, though of course insurers love it.
Since Obamacare began, health-insurers’ stocks have grown far faster than the S&P.
And when subsidies were expanded during the pandemic and phantom enrollees soared, share values went through the roof.
Equally depressing: Even if the COVID credits expire, only half the zero-claim enrollees will lose coverage.
Americans will continue to serve as suckers, funneling billions to insurers for nonexistent “beneficiaries.:
Still, with fewer phantom enrollees, the average cost of those who do file claims will rise.
That’s partly why insurers will goose premiums — to cover their higher costs.
Obamacare’s ever-mushrooming hit on taxpayers reflects a huge, built-in problem: With enrollees’ share of the premiums capped and taxpayers forced to cover the rest, insurers have no incentive to keep costs down — and neither do hospitals and other care providers.
Expect premiums to keep soaring — with taxpayers ponying up 100% of the hikes, if Democrats get their way.
It’s just not sustainable; America can’t afford it.
It’s wrecking the private market, too.
Republicans must resist Dems’ shutdown extortion and let the COVID subsidy-boosters expire, as Democrats themselves planned.
But lawmakers on both sides will need to go further and drastically rethink the entire program — or kill it altogether — before it comes crashing down all on its own.
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From New York Post
Link:
https://nypost.com/2025/10/25/opinio...own-collapses/
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