This just in via the New Jersey Dept. of Banking & Insurance (via email for now):
Statement from New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance Commissioner Caride on President Biden’s Enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act
TRENTON – New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance Commissioner Marlene Caride today released the following statement on the signing by President Biden of the Inflation Reduction Act:
With the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act, President Biden and Congress have preserved a lifeline to health insurance for millions of Americans. For New Jersey, this means the preservation of record levels of financial help that have made health insurance through Get Covered New Jersey more affordable for hundreds of thousands of New Jersey residents.
ST. PAUL, Minn.—Today, President Biden signed into law a sweeping investment in health care affordability for Americans that will help keep health care costs in check for over 70,000 Minnesotans.
The new federal legislation, called the Inflation Reduction Act, extends enhanced subsidies for private health plans purchased through MNsure, Minnesota’s health insurance marketplace. First introduced in 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan, the enhanced subsidies made existing tax credits more generous and expanded eligibility for tax credits to include more middle-income families. The average annual savings for MNsure enrollees is $6,100 per household for 2022.
DENVER— Today, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. In addition to tackling issues such as climate change, health care and prescription drug costs, the legislation will extend the expansion of Affordable Care Act marketplace premium tax credits through 2025.
Connect for Health Colorado’s Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Patterson, released the following statement:
The bill extends enhanced subsidies for three more years and helps bring down costs for Connecticut residents who need financial help to pay for the cost of their health insurance premiums
HARTFORD, Conn. ( August 12, 2022) — Access Health CT (AHCT), Connecticut’s official health insurance marketplace, today announced Connecticut residents who purchase health insurance on the exchange will continue to receive enhanced subsidies thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The enhanced subsidies, which were set to expire at the end of the year, are advanced premium tax credits that help Connecticut residents pay for the cost of their monthly health insurance payments. This financial help is now extended for three more years.
Pennsylvanians can access these savings and enroll in 2022 coverage at pennie.com if they are experiencing a qualifying life event, Pennie’s Open Enrollment begins November 1st and runs until January 15th for 2023 coverage.
Harrisburg, PA – August 16, 2022 –
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed earlier this month by Congress and signed into law today by President Biden, will save hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians from experiencing increases in what they pay for their health coverage through Pennie next year. The IRA extends the enhancements to Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium subsidies originally created by the American Rescue Plan (ARP) which were set to expire at the end of the year. Thanks to this new law, Pennsylvanians will be able to receive these enhanced subsidies through 2025.
With all 50 Republican Senators refusing to lift a finger to fight climate change, tackle prescription drug pricing or extend the enhanced ACA subsidies for over 13 million people, Democrats have watched helplessly as two of their own Senators (Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema) have repeatedly blocked or otherwise stymied efforts to get these vital measures through the Senate.
The drama appears to finally be coming to an end this weekend, however.
Last week Sen. Manchin announced that he & Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had come to an agreement on a heavily modified & pared-down version of what was once called the "Build Back Better Act"...newly christened as the "Inflation Reduction Act of 2022". He then spent the past week pushing the bill heavily on TV appearances/etc, and the rest of the Democratic leadership joined in a coordinated effort to promote the bill.
On the last episode of "Who Wants to Try and Appease Joe Manchin?," the entire Democratic Senate caucus, as well as President Biden, had basically given up on trying to get West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin to be reasonable after spending a solid year listening to him come up with one excuse after another not to pass an ever-shrinking domestic "soft infrastructure" agenda.
In the end, they accepted that the $3.5 trillion "Build Back Better" package, which was later slashed to around $1.6 trillion by the time it passed the House of Representatives last fall, wasn't going to happen.
Instead, they were going to have to accept a shadow of its former self: A roughly $300 billion healthcare-only package which would primarily accomplish only two of the major provisions of the original pacakge (and only part of those):
As depressing as it may be to see President Biden's original $3.5 trillion American Families Plan (that was the actual name of the "soft" infrastructure portion of the Build Back Better agenda; since then the "hard" infrastructure portion which passed has been rebranded as the "Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill" while the American Families Plan was rebranded as...Build Back Better) get whittled down to less than $300 billion, the good news (such as it is) is that it looks like at least that much is finally going to happen...probably:
It’s official. Democrats’ Manchin-ified health-care reconciliation bill is moving forward.
Action on climate change and clean energy remains more urgent than ever.
So let me be clear: If the Senate will not move to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen our domestic clean energy industry, I will take strong executive action to meet this moment. My actions will create jobs, improve our energy security, bolster domestic manufacturing and supply chains, protect us from oil and gas price hikes in the future, and address climate change. I will not back down: The opportunity to create jobs and build a clean energy future is too important to relent.
WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and his staff told Democratic leadership on Thursday that he's not willing to support major climate and tax provisions in a sweeping Biden agenda bill, according to a Democrat briefed on the conversations.
Instead, Manchin, a key centrist who holds the swing vote in the 50-50 Senate, said he is willing to back only a filibuster-proof economic bill with drug pricing and a two-year extension of funding under the Affordable Care Act, the source said.
Manchin's move upends lengthy negotiations with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., most likely forcing the party to scrap climate change policies and new taxes and delivering a major blow to some of President Joe Biden's priorities heading into an already challenging midterm election landscape for Democrats this fall.
