As Congress spent months arguing over COVID-19-era enhanced premium tax credits that many people on the Affordable Care Act used to subsidize their health insurance, a relatively narrow debate over a single policy grew into a much broader and more complicated discussion about how to lower health care costs.
Concerns about those costs are a top issue for voters ahead of this year’s midterms. But whether Congress can meaningfully address the issue and how candidates communicate that idea to voters depends on the type of cost increases and what is driving them.
A main reason is that health-related costs mean different things to different people, such as higher insurance premiums, more expensive drugs, co-pay increases, surprise charges or unexpected gaps in coverage.
