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[ POLITICS ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/la-election-2022)
# The Health Care Emergency Behind the Government Shutdown
October 09 2025
Written by Karen Dolan.
[](https://www.addtoany.com/share)
THE SHUTDOWN –
*Health care costs are about to skyrocket for working Californians, but GOP lawmakers are prioritizing tax breaks for the wealthy.*
Health care access in this country is in grave danger — and your wallet could be, too. Those facts are key to understanding the latest government shutdown.
“My kids have health care through Medicaid — which is especially important for my daughter with autism,” Alexis Cortes, a mom of four, told me. But “the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ [calls](https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5420965-trump-administration-cuts-head-start/#:~:text=Despite%20the%20fears%2C%20President%20Trump's,the%20National%20Head%20Start%20Association.) for massive cuts to Medicaid, food assistance, and early childhood education programs,” she warns.
Also at issue are the [24 million](https://www.kff.org/affordable-care-act/enrollment-growth-in-the-aca-marketplaces/#:~:text=ACA%20Marketplace%20enrollment%20has%20reached,11.4M%20to%2024.3M.) Americans who benefit from the soon-to-expire tax credits that help them afford their health coverage on the Affordable Care Act marketplace. [Around 2 million of these live in California.](https://www.kff.org/affordable-care-act/state-indicator/marketplace-enrollment/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=) When Republicans passed their tax cuts for billionaires and corporations in this summer’s so-called [One Big Beautiful Bill](https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/2025-budget-impacts-house-bill-would-cut-assistance-for-children-raise#:~:text=Ending%20food%20assistance%20for%20children,would%20receive%20an%20extra%20$1%2C000.), they intentionally left out renewing this credit that helps regular people afford health care.
As a result, according to KFF Health, not only could [the 24 million ACA users see a doubling of their premium costs](https://www.kff.org/affordable-care-act/aca-marketplace-premium-payments-would-more-than-double-on-average-next-year-if-enhanced-premium-tax-credits-expire/), but [most Americans could see their premiums rise](https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2025/09/11/health-insurance-premiums-to-rise-well-above-inflation-for-most-americans/) if this tax credit isn’t renewed.
Coupled with the over $1 trillion that the GOP bill [gutted from Medicaid](https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/2025-budget-impacts-house-bill-would-cut-assistance-for-children-raise#:~:text=Ending%20food%20assistance%20for%20children,would%20receive%20an%20extra%20$1%2C000.) in order to fund those massive tax giveaways to billionaires, Americans are about to experience significant reductions in their access to health coverage, long-term care, nursing home care, and hospital care, [especially in rural areas](https://otherwords.org/rural-communities-brace-for-trumps-health-cuts/).
This is what’s at stake with the current government shutdown on Capitol Hill.
The Republican majority is trying to [pass a stop-gap spending measure](https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/what-to-know-about-continuing-resolutions/#:~:text=More%20often%20than%20not%2C%20though,rest%20of%20a%20fiscal%20year.) that sustains President Trump’s mass firings of public servants, maintains his freeze on nearly [half a trillion dollars](https://democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-releases/new-trump-continues-block-least-425-billion-dollars-funding-owed-american) meant for our communities, and keeps their cuts to everything from education to health care, food assistance, student loans, and even cancer research.
Some lawmakers want to stop this calamity from happening.
The Democrats have a [counterproposal ](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/us/politics/government-shutdown-spending-bill-impasse.html)to fund the government that restores this health care funding, keeps costs under control for families already grappling with high costs of living, and prohibits illegally freezing appropriated funds. But with Republican majorities in the House and Senate, the Democrats’ proposal hasn’t been able to pass.
Nearly [80 percent of Americans](https://www.wric.com/news/politics/ap-just-before-shutdown-most-americans-wanted-health-insurance-tax-credits-extended-kff-poll-finds/) — including most Trump supporters — agree with Alexis, telling pollsters they want lawmakers to restore those expiring ACA credits.
Unfortunately, President Trump is disingenuously claiming that Democrats aren’t agreeing to the massive health care cuts because they want to spend taxpayer dollars on undocumented immigrants instead.
This is untrue. Undocumented immigrants pay taxes but aren’t allowed to get government health care benefits. Period. The president and his allies are telling this lie in an effort to gut your health care.
Trump is also [vowing ](https://apnews.com/article/trump-government-shutdown-firings-layoffs-vought-1fd57313272ec4db5984f653b095be33)to use the government shutdown as an opportunity to enact mass federal worker firings and to deny funds to states that voted against him. That means “blue states” — including plenty of red and purple communities inside them — are being denied funds for projects like building roads and bridges as a form of punishment.
Trump also instructed that the email signatures of government employees blame Democrats for the government shutdown. The administration has posted similar false and partisan messages on some executive branch agency websites.
Together, these measures may violate at least four federal laws against misappropriating or freezing federal funds, or spending them on partisan activity — including [the Anti-Deficiency Act](https://www.gao.gov/legal/appropriations-law/resources#:~:text=The%20Antideficiency%20Act%20prohibits%20federal,fund%20unless%20authorized%20by%20law.), [the Hatch Act](https://osc.gov/Services/Pages/HatchAct-Federal.aspx#:~:text=)%5D%E2%80%8B%E2%80%8B-,Prohibited%20Activities%20for%20Further%20Restricted%20Employees,Such%20employees%20may%20not:), the [Anti-Lobbying Act](https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1RXQR_enUS1077US1077&cs=0&sca_esv=1c57431be9b2745b&sxsrf=AE3TifOGVr0wQz2PzAei5CJsEP_8ysjrKw%3A1759674662045&q=Anti-Lobbying+Act+%2818+U.S.C.+%C2%A7+1913%29&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJu-b4oo2QAxVUKVkFHXkFE44QxccNegQIAhAB&mstk=AUtExfA07d7IirI7IE3XQL59Yw6bNyoIWfR-CaiAZ8pg2JFqud0Zh-_Bx5ZbvgPWiD9286FRbPWIOwYMvzMDLv9rC3VxNRuqmDvxUMI2Yt-m774ET4ILtP8xxMNzWJzoQCwyMc2EnnIKo4XWJnF2AQQD99sR6zJ4Y6WYJVBYcLmwb8f8kV76IricYkNeUprQ2LBisl9fHkwcWD3qMBjxQjzQMWVH1Jgn2r-dY01rKagIsqQPKPPz-hfjauFH4alGbe5VAm8vgJY7zdkTDMpa8h7J6Okh&csui=3), and the [Impoundment Control Act](https://www.gao.gov/legal/appropriations-law/impoundment-control-act).
Meanwhile, families like Alexis’s are scared and struggling, wondering how they will be able to care for their families when their health coverage vanishes or becomes unaffordable.
The 80 percent of us who object to defunding our families and communities just so the rich can get richer need to make our voices heard. The sooner we do, the sooner the government can reopen and our families can receive the care and services we need.
*(Karen Dolan directs the Criminalization of Race and Poverty Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. This op-ed was distributed by [OtherWords.org](http://OtherWords.org).)*
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