Corporate Welfare Is Causing Our Government Shut Down

Our government has just shut down because legislators cannot agree on future Medicaid tax cuts and ACA healthcare subsidies. Cuts in Medicaid and not extending ACA subsidies were both part of the recently passed OBBA and have remained a sticking point between parties.

Bottom line:  The core problem is the exploding cost of healthcare, and the inability of US citizens to afford it. So, who is at fault?

BOTH SIDES

We should not have to continue increasing the federal deficit by throwing good money at subsidies or increasing public program budgets to offset fast-rising healthcare costs in our country. However, if we don’t provide this funding, millions of Americans will not be able to afford healthcare and some will actually die, whether you want to believe that or not.

Government officials on both sides of the aisle have been asleep at the wheel for more than a decade, allowing health insurance companies to grow without restraints. For example, United Health has become one of the largest companies in the world growing from $157 Billion in revenue in 2015 to over $400 Billion in revenue last year. They also own over 2700 subsidiaries.

This growth is endemic of the largest health insurers over the past decade, at our expense. They are buying pharmacies, hospitals, nursing homes, physician practices and smaller competitors. This consolidation of power among a handful of companies has created a monopolistic environment that has gone unchecked for too long. They have been allowed to do things that are not allowed in any other industry in the US, and still our legislators do nothing.

Their oversized influence in Washington keep regulators at bay as they keep raising healthcare costs on the American people. Pure capitalists will say that this is fair game, but when officials cut corporate tax rates, the result should be increased R&D, increased competition, better products and services and hopefully the stabilization or lowering of prices.

What has happened is the opposite. Healthcare giants use tax cuts for stock buybacks to increase their share price, pay executives tens of millions in compensation, and buy up smaller competitors and purchase companies in all sectors of healthcare - allowing them to make the rules of the game they play in. The results are less competition, increased healthcare costs, higher inflation, pain for consumers, burnt-out providers overwhelmed by paperwork that delay care and reimbursement, and the list goes on.

According to a recent study based on over 1,700 US employers responding to Mercer’s 2025 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, employers are preparing for the highest health benefit cost increase in 15 years. (1)

The survey found that 59% of employers will make cost-cutting changes, like raising deductibles and other cost-sharing provisions, meaning employees can expect their paycheck deductions for health coverage to rise by about 6% to 7% on average. (1)

The ACA marketplace is in even worse shape. Insurers have already sent signals that reasonable expectations have ACA marketplace premiums in 2026 will increase in the 10% to 20% range for many markets, with a median closer to 18%, and some insurers and states expecting increases of 20–30% or more.

You may wonder if the government has put guardrails in place. Yes. There is a threshold of a 15% increase federally, or lower if a state sets its own triggering an “unreasonable increase” review.

But whether the OIR can limit or deny the increase depends on state law. Some states can force lower premiums, others can only publish or shame insurers, leaving consumers to see the “unreasonable” label. Good luck with shaming them!

And while providing subsidies for ACA marketplace recipients helps affordability, that money goes straight to the same companies that raise the cost of healthcare every year. Which begs the question: Why should taxpayers be on the hook, paying more money to an industry that keeps raising prices with no guardrails to slow them down? This is insane.

Bottom line, let’s stop pointing fingers at the other party and demand that ALL of our legislators do something to stop this crazy healthcare death spiral. The President uses the Executive Order because our polarized Congress is slow to act. Many Americans would agree that healthcare in the US is a crisis, and we would like to see something more significant happen - not just a band aid or giveaway to corporate greed.

Source – (1) https://tinyurl.com/yjkxz6mc