Specifically, I mean Democrat Representative June Speakman (Bristol, Warren) and Democrat Senator Pamela Lauria (Barrington, Bristol, East Providence) and their recent op-ed concerning the looming increase in Rhode Islanders’ healthcare premiums:

Why the dramatic increase in premiums? While the hefty rate increases just approved by the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner play a role, it’s primarily because the U.S. Congress and President Donald Trump decided to let the Enhanced Premium Tax Credit expire as of Dec. 31, 2025. With the loss of the tax credit to help reduce their insurance premiums, those monthly bills will be out of reach for many.

These tax credits are “enhanced” because they were meant to be a temporary response to the COVID pandemic.  (Some readers might be old enough to remember that unprecedented global event.)  Not that long ago, a less-biased news media and more-active political competition would have forced Speakman and Lauria at least to acknowledge this fact and come up with a “nonetheless” reason the credits should be extended.  As it is, they don’t bother.  They’ll sell increases in government handouts as a temporary measure and then insist recipients are entitled to them for the rest of their lives.

The dishonesty goes deeper, though. Consider two examples the legislators offer. First:

According to Protect Our Healthcare RI, a coalition of organizations and individuals dedicated to protecting access to quality, comprehensive, affordable health care, monthly benchmark insurance premiums for a 64-year-old couple with a shared annual income of $85,000 will quadruple, from about $600 a month to an estimated $2,408, eating up 34% of their total income.

There’s a reason Speakman and Lauria pick a 64-year-old couple.  That’s the last year before the couple starts collecting the benefits of Medicare, yet the couple is reaching the age range at which its healthcare costs are rapidly escalating, meaning the cost to the system no matter who pays the bill.  The legislators zip through this carefully crafted example in the hope people won’t pause and consider the circumstances.  This hypothetical couple has income that’s about the state median; if they’re homeowners, they’re 63% likely to have paid off their mortgage (or are about to); and there’s a less-than-1% chance they’ve got school-aged children in the home.  In short, they’re probably living more comfortably than most of the population.  So how responsible should they be for their own healthcare costs?

Second:

A 45-year-old making $27,284 (just above the limit for Medicaid) would see their annual premium payments grow by 387%, from $23 to $112 per month.

Notice that Speakman and Lauria leave out the “percentage of income” data, here.  It’s actually less than 5%.  So, here’s a middle-aged man or woman, presumably without dependents, paying less than 5% of his or her income for healthcare coverage.  In this case, the key missing information is that Democrat policy in Rhode Island is forcing this person to spend this much.  Before ObamaCare, healthy, younger individuals could find high-deductible plans that were inexpensive because they didn’t cover much, but the people who signed up for them didn’t expect to have much need for coverage.  If something unexpected happened, they were protected, but they didn’t have to maintain high costs to subsidize people like the 64-year-old couple mentioned above.

Moreover, Rhode Island has long led the nation in the number of mandates for services that every Rhode Islander must pay in their insurance plans.  This is just one of the most-direct ways in which Democrats like Speakman and Lauria drive up costs on all of us, but there are many more.

You don’t hear the politicians complaining about that, though.  Why should they when they can get away with deceptive dishonesty?

Featured image by Justin Katz using DALL-E and Photoshop AI.