Obamacare cuts will hit Hood River hard

OREGON — A key sticking point of the current federal government shutdown is something called “the enhanced premium tax credit,” which Democrats want to keep and Republicans want to end. The credit, if not extended, will have an outsized impact in three Oregon counties.

According to an Oregon Journalism Project analysis of OHA data, the subsidy loss will hit populations in Hood River, Deschutes and Wallowa counties hardest in percentage terms.

These three counties depend heavily on outdoor recreation, said Todd Montgomery, director of Oregon State University’s Sustainable Tourism Lab.

Those jobs are often filled by workers “making somewhere between minimum wage and maybe 20 bucks an hour,” Montgomery said. “And those are also the ones that are most likely to need that healthcare coverage. So if you start to take that away, it’s problematic.”

That credit, an outgrowth of the 2014 Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, allows  people earning more than 100% of the federal poverty level to pay reduced premiums when they buy their ACA health insurance.

Republicans did not include the premium credits in the budget bill President Trump signed on July 4. 

If the tax credit disappears, an estimated 110,000 Oregon workers will pay an additional $127 to $456 each month for plans through the ACA insurance marketplace, according to a Oregon Health Authority report.

Originally, the feds offered the premium tax credit only to those earning less than 400% of the federal poverty level ($15,560 for a one-person household, with $5,500 for each additional person). Congress temporarily raised, or “enhanced,” the income limit during the pandemic and then extended it through 2025.

The subsidy boosted health insurance coverage around the country, including in Oregon, where 97% of residents have health insurance.

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This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project (oregonjournalismproject.org), a nonprofit investigative newsroom for the State of Oregon.