Harris commits to worst of Biden healthcare policies

Democrats flocked to Chicago this week to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris for president. They also handed her a policy platform stuffed with all things progressive, from a global minimum tax on corporations to Medicaid expansion.

One proposal Harris has explicitly backed would enshrine President Joe Biden's enhanced Obamacare subsidies, which are slated to expire in 2025. "Republicans want to let those credits expire, increasing premiums," the Democratic platform asserts. "Democrats will fight to make them permanent."

Biden's subsidy expansion needs to go. It's effectively a welfare program for insurers — and contributes to healthcare inflation. The expanded subsidies in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act guarantee that through Dec. 31, 2025, no one has to pay more than 8.5% of household income for care through the exchanges. Enrollees earning below 400% of poverty, $124,800 for a family of four, enjoy bigger discounts. Premiums cost $0 for those earning below 150% of poverty — or $46,800 for a family of four.

These subsidies simply disguise just how much premiums have soared thanks to Obamacare's cost-inflating mandates. The average individual-market premium in 2013, one year before Obamacare's mandates took effect, was $244 a month. By 2019, the average individual premium had more than doubled to $558 a month. In 2023 and 2024, the average benchmark premium rose by 4% per year to $456 and $477, respectively.

Rising premiums mean a rising bill for taxpayers. In 2022, the Congressional Budget Office calculated that making Biden's premium tax credits permanent would increase federal deficits by $247.9 billion between 2023 and 2032. Despite all this federal assistance, enrollees still face eye-watering out-of-pocket obligations. The average deductible for a midlevel exchange plan topped $5,200 this year, up from $2,400 in 2014.

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Given these out-of-pocket burdens, it's no wonder that 4.4 million people who qualified for Obamacare premium subsidies last year chose to remain uninsured.

Harris has long branded herself as "for the people." The enhanced subsidies she supports indicate that she has a soft spot for big health insurers.

Sally C. Pipes is president, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith fellow in healthcare.