Benjamin Franklin famously wrote in 1789 that nothing is certain but death and taxes, but if he were living in our country today, I wonder if he would have added increasingly unaffordable health care to that list.
He wouldn’t be wrong.
Given the Trump/Project 2025 regime’s attacks on disease prevention as well as health and safety regulations, more and more people will need medical care as it becomes harder and harder to get.
“It’s the result of insurers and providers and politicians – like, frankly, people who are not healthcare professionals – making decisions about what’s appropriate for our healthcare,” said Aaron Troisi, political director for the SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania union. “And it becomes particularly problematic when those entities are consolidated into essentially monopolies, which is what we’re seeing in the healthcare landscape.”
With the One Big Beautiful Bill for Billionaires, the White House and its GOP puppets have slashed Obamacare subsidies and Medicaid. Donald Trump himself infamously told guests at a private Easter luncheon that his vanity war makes it impossible for the federal government to fund programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
And with this regime bombarding us with disastrous actions and evil deeds, it’s almost impossible to keep track of what’s going on, let alone do anything to stop it. But nothing will happen if we do nothing and accept the Trump/Project 2025 concept of health care as a luxury or privilege instead of a basic right and necessity.
That’s why I was heartened to learn about Affordable Healthcare for NEPA, a northeastern Pennsylvania coalition that’s calling for a freeze on premiums and out-of-pocket expenses — something I’d thought was beyond the realm of possibility.
The coalition, whose members include the SEIU Healthcare PA and the grassroots progressive organization Action Together NEPA, wants to let people know that insurers will be proposing new rates to the Pennsylvania Insurance Department.
At a meeting of Action Together NEPA’s Schuylkill Indivisible chapter on Monday, Troisi said he expects the department to set a public comment period in August or early September. “And we want to flood that with comments saying, ‘You know what? These companies can handle a freeze,” he said.
Attendees at this meeting and at a virtual town hall on Tuesday described the obstacle courses they’ve had to navigate to get the care they need. Some of these speakers are even employed and insured by health care companies.
Affordable Healthcare for NEPA also has an online petition that it plans to present to employers and insurers. And on Aug. 27, an ice cream truck distributing heart-shaped popsicles with a message to “freeze healthcare and warm our hearts” will lead a “Health Care-a-Van” from Scranton to Danville, with stops along the way.
A nonpartisan problem and widespread support for change
A KFF poll in April showed that 64% of Americans were at least somewhat worried about health care costs. The same percentage expressed those feelings about gasoline prices, which had exceeded $4 a gallon.
And only 49% of Americans surveyed by Gallup late last year said they had access to quality care and could afford both it and medicine. This was the lowest percentage of “cost-secure” people since measurement began in 2021.
(As a Medicare recipient with a good supplement, I’m fortunate to be in that group, but I still worry about how long the funding will last and what the One Big Beautiful Bill for Billionaires will mean for my doctors and local hospital.)
A survey Upswing Research and Strategy conducted last spring for Affordable Healthcare for NEPA showed 71% of registered voters in the region were at least somewhat worried that they might not be able to afford health insurance, and 40% said this is one of their top concerns.
Of the 500 respondents — 55% of whom were Trump voters — more than 80% of Democrats, Republicans and independents alike said they somewhat or strongly agree that insurers should commit or be required to freeze out-of-pocket costs.
Even so, Action Together NEPA Advocacy Director Kristin Volchansky, said, “it takes time for legislators to catch up to where the public is, which is why we’re doing this now.”
It would take even more time to restore health care to pre-Trump/Project 2025 levels, let alone improve it with a public insurance option or Medicare for all.
A crucial first step is for all of us to remember that wars and tax cuts for billionaires aren’t necessary, but health care is. And to keep repeating the principle behind the Affordable Care Act: “No one should die because they cannot afford health care; no one should go broke because they get sick.”
Canary note: Opinions expressed in any Op-Ed column appearing on this site are the views of the writer and are not necessarily the opinions of Coal Region Canary.
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