Health subsidies are important despite GOP lies

Here’s why Democrats must continue to use the federal shutdown to force the issue.

- MICHAEL HILTZIK COLUMNIST

GOP leaders' assertions about the subsidies are wrong, Michael Hiltzik writes.

Republicans on Capitol Hill and at the White House have been working assiduously to belittle the concerns of Democrats about healthcare subsidies that are scheduled to expire at the end of this year and have become the central issue provoking the government shutdown that began Wednesday morning.

Democrats thus far have held fast to their demand that the subsidies be extended as a condition of their voting for the GOP’s budget plan. But their position has been wildly misrepresented by the GOP.

The Democrats’ demands would fund “free healthcare for illegals,” Vice President JD Vance said last week after a meeting of GOP and Democratic congressional leaders at the White House broke up without a compromise. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and others in his caucus have maintained that the “policy debate” about extending the subsidies should wait until December, while funding the government must take priority.

Both GOP assertions are wrong — so wrong that, given how thoroughly the truth about subsidies for “illegals” and the effect of delaying a decision has been aired in the press and in the government's own data, they rank not as mistakes or misrepresentations, but outright lies.

For one thing, Vance must know that undocumented immigrants aren't eligible for federally paid ACA health benefits. How do we know that’s the case? It’s stated by, among other government sources, the website for healthcare.gov, the federal ACA marketplace. I asked the White House to explain Vance's claim, but got no reply.