By Tom Suozzi
The biggest issue around most Thanksgiving tables last week — other than gratitude — was just how expensive everything seemed. Costs have risen sharply in the past few years, and people are looking for answers.
People are sick of politicians’ petty partisan attacks. They’re asking, “What can you do to make life more affordable?”
Some things are straightforward: tariffs make groceries, clothing and Christmas presents more expensive. The growing federal debt is driving up interest rates. Demand for energy to power A.I. data centers, combined with the cancellation of a bunch of green-energy projects, is driving up energy costs. Fewer workers on farms and in industrial plants, hospitality and health care due to deportation — or being scared to show up for work — increases overtime costs.
Rising health care costs are at the top of the affordability crisis list, but addressing those costs is extraordinarily complex.
First, we need an immediate fix in the next few weeks to extend premium tax credits to avoid an explosion in health insurance premiums for millions of Americans. Then, over the next two years, we need to develop a bipartisan plan to reduce hyperinflated health care costs meaningfully.
Right now, over 20 million Americans rely on the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced Premium Tax Credits to afford health insurance. These credits, which expire at the end of the year, require a person buying health insurance to pay 8.5 percent of their income for coverage, with the rest covered by the federal government. If Congress fails to fix this soon, those millions will see their premiums jump by hundreds, even thousands, of dollars, overnight.
For many, that would mean losing coverage altogether. Even those who don’t use the credits would be affected: When the risk pool shrinks, premiums rise for everyone.
First, the immediate fix: I recently introduced the Bipartisan HOPE Act. It would extend the premium tax credits for two years, and institute a salary cap to target assistance to those most in need.
The act also includes strong guardrails to combat fraud, with protections that safeguard taxpayers, restore trust in the system and ensure that the program functions as intended.
This bill isn’t perfect, but no bipartisan compromise is. Time is running out, and my colleagues and I haven’t seen anyone else stepping up with a truly bipartisan plan. So we did.
Next, the long-term solution: Over the next two years, we need a bipartisan effort to address the decades-long rise in health care costs. Health care is too expensive. Insurance is too expensive. The Affordable Care Act achieved its objective of insuring tens of millions of Americans who had never been insured. Before the ACA, 50 million people were uninsured; today, that number is less than half.
In a litany of steps we need to take to improve our system, a few stand out. The government desperately needs to lower prescription drug costs. The Biden administration passed legislation that allowed Medicare to negotiate prices on 25 drugs, but we need more. President Trump said himself that Big Pharma is “getting away with murder.”
We need to do a much better job on preventive care. People need to be healthier, and medical issues must be addressed long before they spiral out of control. Doing so will save money and increase life expectancy. Smoking, alcohol, improper diet and lack of exercise are the leading avoidable causes of premature death. We have made significant strides in addressing smoking; we need to do the same with obesity. We must do better! Let’s emphasize healthy eating and exercise, de-incentivize alcohol, and get the medical community more focused on prevention and early detection.
Doctors should be guiding treatment, not insurance companies. Physician payments have fallen dramatically, while doctor expenses have risen by even more. In a world where doctors are subject to burnout, excessive lawsuits and spending more time on defensive paperwork than patient care, our physician pool is hemorrhaging.
I’ve been in public service for the better part of 30 years, as the mayor of Glen Cove, Nassau County executive, and now in Congress. I’ve learned that one-party solutions are fleeting, easily replaced. We need a bipartisan fix now, and over the next two years I pledge to work with my colleagues in the Problem Solvers Caucus — a bipartisan group of members that I co-chair, that is committed to solving complex problems — to develop a robust health care framework that lowers costs for generations to come.
Tom Suozzi represents the 3rd Congressional District.
