LANSING — As health care costs skyrocket because of his price-hiking agenda, multi-millionaire Florida resident Mike Rogers is once again doubling down on supporting premium hikes, telling Michigan Advance that he is committed to ending ACA subsidies. 

Responding to Michiganders with pre-existing conditions calling out his attacks on health care, Rogers said that, “unlike my opponents,” he is committed to “phasing out” ACA subsidies that help lower health care costs for middle-class families. Rogers has also backed efforts to jack up the cost of prescription drugs, calling himself a “champion” for Big Pharma who is “passionately against” Medicare price negotiations, all while taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from drug companies that lobbied for new price negotiation exemptions in the GOP tax law.

In response, Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel released the following statement:

“Mike Rogers is a multi-millionaire Florida resident who wants to gut the Affordable Care Act and spike premiums for middle-class Michiganders. By once again committing to end ACA subsidies, it’s clear that Price Hike Mike will stop at nothing to rip away health care from working families while giving tax handouts to himself and his rich donors.” 

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Michigan Advance: Michigan Democrats attack Rogers’ opposition to extending ACA tax credits

• Two Michiganders with preexisting conditions joined the Michigan Democratic Party to criticize U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers for his opposition to extending Affordable Care Act tax credits and the price hikes to health insurance that resulted from the expiration of those subsidies.  

• Diane Holland, an Okemos resident living with multiple sclerosis and a breast cancer survivor, said during a press conference hosted by the Michigan Democratic Party that Rogers, a Republican from White Lake, “cannot be trusted with our health care.”

• “If he gets elected to the Senate this year, he could once again vote to gut the ACA and make it impossible for people who have pre-existing conditions, to get affordable health care, to take away the coverage that’s keeping me healthy without going bankrupt,” Holland said. “For me, it’s MS, disability or death or bankruptcy. Mike Rogers is a multi millionaire. He doesn’t know what it’s like to choose between your health or your bills or your life. But I do, and many other Michiganders do.”

• Jill Murphy, who lives in Macomb County and deals with endometriosis among other medical concerns, agreed with Holland about the stress that comes with wondering if she will be able to afford the health care she needs. 

• “Every year, I am left wondering whether my plan will still exist, whether my medications will still be covered, or whether my premiums will spike again,” she said. “That instability creates constant stress for households across Michigan, families are trying to plan, budget and take care of their health. But when coverage and costs change without warning, it’s impossible to feel secure, and Mike Rogers wants to make it worse.”

• “Mike Rogers has spent his entire career trying to take that away from people like me, and if he gets into the Senate, there’s no doubt he’ll try to finish the job,” she added, citing that Rogers voted 14 times while in Congress to weaken Medicaid.

• Holland said that her health care premiums have more than doubled without the tax credits, and she called that “the difference between making it and not making it.” 

• “Unlike my opponents, I will […] phas[e] out insurance company taxpayer subsidies […],” Rogers told Michigan Advance in an emailed statement. 

• State Rep. Jason Morgan (D-Ann Arbor) shared even more drastic statistics about premium increases during the press conference. He described premium increases of thousands of dollars at the start of the year, as well as the harm of insurance providers leaving the ACA marketplace due to premium hikes, forcing Michiganders on those plans to find new health care quickly.

• Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel also took his own swing at Rogers for opposing the tax subsidy extensions, depicting him as out-of-touch with most Michiganders. 

• “He’s someone who puts tax breaks for the wealthy ahead of health care for working families. He’s someone who supports Medicaid cuts while he lives up in his Florida mansion. He’s someone who celebrates when his policies spike costs for Michigan families,” Hertel said. “Michigan families deserve better.”

• “This isn’t some far away political battle happening in D.C.,” Holland said. “For me, it’s about being able to live my life with dignity.”

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