John Fetterman was hospitalized last week, and has since been discharged. Thank goodness he’s ok. I think he’s a bad apple as Senators go, but we don’t cheer for people to die or be seriously hurt here. Apparently he was on a walk in Braddock and had a heart issue that made him light headed, then he fell, and he had wounds to the face. Again, we’re glad he’s alright.

Thankfully, John Fetterman has outstanding health insurance as a United States Senator. I think that’s a good thing. We invest tremendous actual power of every part of our lives in these 100 people, and we should want them to perform their duties at a healthy, high level and always get the care that they receive. A lot of people complain about the benefits the public *gives* to these 100 people. I don’t. We should want good people to want those jobs, and this is part of what you give good people to take them. Also though, everyone should have access to quality health care.

The government doesn’t give me care though, and that’s ok with me. Look, if we had national health insurance mandated on everyone, I’d probably be getting lesser care than I get for buying health care on the Affordable Care Act created exchange for Pennsylvania, Pennie. I pay full price (In 2025, $427 a month) for my plan, I’ve hit my deductible in consecutive years because of my health issues, and in exchange I have received first rate insurance that has saved my life and well being a couple times now. You get what you pay for, and that’s what I got. I don’t take the premium subsidies, because it then impacts your tax returns, and I don’t want them more complicated than they are. I just want access, and frankly this is much cheaper than I’d have been buying care for myself without the passage of Obamacare. I know what I’m getting into.

I do care about those people on the subsidies though, and there’s two reasons for that. One, I’m not some ghoulish nut who wants people in need to die. Second, self interest. Insurance companies set their rates based on how many people they think will buy for the year. When the subsidies became endangered this year, insurers assumed that less people will buy care for next year and keep it for the whole year. Because they thought they’d have less customers, but they wouldn’t pay out any significantly less amount, they raised rates on the people who are buying. Those rates are now set in stone for 2026. The subsidies are still a question. If those subsidies are not continued, more people will drop their care either before or during the next year. That will drive 2026 premiums up even higher. That will impact me a lot. It is in my interest that these folks get their subsidies.

The best chance for those subsidies to be continued was in the continuing resolution passed by Congress last week that ended the government shutdown. Eight Democratic Senators voted to pass the resolution without the subsidies. Now Democrats are hoping for a vote in December on a stand alone bill to fund those subsidies. Only the Senate is committed to even voting on that bill, and now it is not attached to any Republican priorities that they would *need* to care about. So Republicans in the Congress can kill it several different ways. Even 41 of the 53 Republicans could kill the vote by never allowing it to the floor. They could get 50 Senators to just vote it down and kill it at final passage. They could attach a bunch of amendments, such as on abortion, and damning the subsidies to be voted down even by Democrats. They could pass the bill in the Senate and House Republicans just never give it a vote. House Republicans might just decide to vote it down. Or they could pass it, and Donald Trump could just veto it. And it almost certainly won’t be able to be over rode in either house of Congress. So really the only chance Democrats have of getting the subsidies continued is to give the Republicans something else for it. That’s what the shutdown was supposed to be about. Republicans don’t need anything in December now, so Democrats will have to offer Republicans something they won’t like to pass this bill before the year ends. It was strategically stupid.

John Fetterman, who deservedly has great health care, was a leading proponent of voting to re-open the government. I’m glad he has great health care. If he is actually glad that I have good health care, he showed he doesn’t care very much. Protecting what 20 million of us have was not a priority for him like making sure the Trump government was funded. We can see his priorities. They are not priorities that apparently take the rest of us into account.