Voters demand action on health care costs as employers hit limits — SkimNews
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- Americans prioritize lowering health care costs, with 74% calling it 'very important' and 94% saying it is at least 'somewhat' important, according to a Families USA poll.
- Employers increasingly support federal regulation to control hospital and drug prices, frustrated by rising premiums, deductibles, and administrative burdens despite contributing to employee plans.
- Marci Sepulveda, a small business owner in Chicago, pays $150 monthly toward each employee’s $500 health plan and says she cannot afford to contribute more, calling the current system unsustainable.
- Congress has failed to pass major reforms due to industry opposition and partisan gridlock, with policies like the ACA’s 'Cadillac tax' repealed after pushback from both parties and corporate interests.
- Landon Dais, a New York state legislator, reports growing criticism of insurers’ premium hikes and anticompetitive practices, especially affecting gig workers reliant on ACA marketplace plans.
- Elizabeth Mitchell of the Purchaser Business Group on Health says health care consolidation and lack of transparency have worsened access and prices, urging policy intervention as industry self-correction has failed.
Why it matters: Workers and small businesses are absorbing unsustainable cost increases as health care consumes wages and benefits, while political stagnation allows consolidation and pricing abuses to persist—94% of voters demand action, yet no major reform can advance without congressional breakthroughs that have eluded both parties for decades.
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