马萨诸塞州宣布拨款2.5亿美元补贴居民，以应对保费上涨
【中美创新时报2026年1月9日讯】（记者温友平编译）马萨诸塞州州长莫拉·希利周四站在讲台上宣布，该州将动用信托基金中的 2.5 亿美元，帮助马萨诸塞州居民应对通过《平价医疗法案》获得的医疗保险保费飙升的问题。《波士顿环球报》记者杰森·劳克林对此作了下述报道。
民主党人将医疗费用负担能力作为竞选的核心议题，州长莫拉·希利周四站在讲台上宣布，该州将动用信托基金中的 2.5 亿美元，帮助马萨诸塞州居民应对通过《平价医疗法案》获得的医疗保险保费飙升的问题。
“所以我们打算这样做，”希利说。“我们将利用这笔信托基金的资金，在联邦政府取消补贴的地方提供更多财政支持，”她说。
然而，采取行动的承诺却淡化了这样一个事实：这笔财务支出并非新近发生，而且已经计入了 1 月份的保险账单中。
马萨诸塞州健康连接器执行主任奥黛丽·莫尔斯·加斯特尔表示，这项惠及 27 万居民的财政保障是“我们在参保人数和保障民众健康方面能够坚持下去的部分原因”。
但周四的声明并不会转化为任何额外的帮助。
希利的新闻发布会恰逢选举年伊始，三位共和党候选人角逐她的职位，预计选民将格外关注该州高昂的生活成本。去年的一项调查显示，马萨诸塞州的生活成本位居全美第二。今年保险费上涨的人们表示，在不断上涨的各种开支中，这无疑是一笔不小的开支。
“我简直不敢相信去超市买东西要花这么多钱。我们的电费也涨了，”朱迪思·奥加拉说道。她家的平价医疗法案（ACA）保险计划在1月份的保费增加了400美元/月。“我们只能做好心理准备，尽量让工资更省着用。”
来自米利斯的奥加拉在社区报纸担任兼职编辑，她的丈夫是一名自由职业的电脑动画师和壁画艺术家。她说，她增加了工作时间，但仍然不够资格通过雇主获得医疗保险，所以这对夫妇只能通过保险连接器购买保险。
希利还在新闻发布会上就国会一项旨在恢复联邦补贴的备受瞩目的努力发表了看法。同样在周四，美国众议院在17名面临激烈连任竞选的共和党议员的支持下，通过了一项法案，将补贴期限延长三年。一小群参议员正在考虑提出他们自己的补贴延期方案。
“我们需要看到国会议员们站出来采取行动，就此事与总统抗争，让他把注意力集中在国内议程以及如何让人们的生活更加负担得起上，”希利说。
州长表示，她没有更早宣布这笔资金的注入，是因为她希望国会能在 2025 年底前采取行动。
“我们等到最后期限才采取行动，”她说。
《平价医疗法案》的开放注册期将持续到1月23日。
来自联邦医疗保健信托基金的资金注入使该州对保险市场的总投入达到 6 亿美元，希利表示，这是全国任何一个州提供的最大支持。
联邦政府补贴的医疗保险政策最初于2009年根据奥巴马总统的《平价医疗法案》（ACA，也称奥巴马医改）向收入低于联邦贫困线400%的人群开放，即四口之家年收入约为128,600美元。2021年，国会进一步提高了补贴力度，并将补贴范围扩大到收入高达联邦贫困线500%的人群。过去四年，扩大后的税收抵免政策使ACA医保交易平台的参与人数翻了一番，截至去年，马萨诸塞州已有337,000人通过ConnectorCare获得了补贴保险。
这些增幅原定于四年后到期，但由于国会未采取行动予以保留，今年的保费已恢复到2021年之前的水平。收入超过贫困线400%的人群不再有资格享受补贴保险。州政府官员估计，未来十年全州约有30万人可能失去医疗保险，部分原因是税收抵免政策的到期。
去年秋天，民主党人发动了一场持续 43 天的政府停摆，这是美国历史上持续时间最长的政府停摆，但最终未能保住扩大后的补贴。
马萨诸塞州纳税人基金会（一家非营利预算监督机构）主席道格·豪盖特表示，联邦医疗保健信托基金的设立早于2021年的医保覆盖范围扩大，其设立目的是为了支持ConnectorCare项目。马萨诸塞州长期以来拥有健全的公共医疗保险计划，而2021年的医保覆盖范围扩大实际上使该州得以将原本支付给联邦政府的补贴成本转移出去。豪盖特说，现在动用该信托基金，实际上使马萨诸塞州的医保支持水平恢复到了2021年之前的水平。
霍盖特表示，无论希利何时宣布，马萨诸塞州对医疗保险的普及有着独树一帜的坚定承诺，这都是不争的事实。
他说：“我认为，让公众了解州政府有能力抵消部分影响是一个重要的信息。这可是真金白银。”
据希利办公室称，福尔里弗一对45岁、有两个孩子的夫妇，年收入7.5万美元，此前每月支付166美元即可获得最低档次的医疗保险。如果没有州政府的干预，他们的保费将会翻倍。但随着信托基金的注入，他们每月只需支付206美元。
然而，州政府能做的也仅限于缓解补贴到期带来的影响。由于国会没有延长这些补贴， 收入在联邦贫困线400%到500%之间的人根本无法通过《平价医疗法案》（ACA）市场购买补贴保险 。全州大约有27000人无法从州政府为弥补联邦资金损失而采取的措施中受益，而这些人恰恰是面临新增保险支出最大的群体之一。
56岁的理发师克丽斯塔和69岁的卡车司机丈夫加里年收入加起来不到105,750美元，几乎是贫困线的5倍。这对夫妇为了保护隐私要求匿名。他们之前每月支付282美元购买克丽斯塔的保险，无需自付额；现在却换了一份每月725美元、自付额高达2000美元的私人保险。
已加入联邦医疗保险计划的加里仍然指望国会能给他一个喘息之机。
“我相信参议院将被迫采取行动，我们也希望如此，”他说。
题图：马萨诸塞州州长莫拉·希利。 杰西卡·里纳尔迪/《波士顿环球报》工作人员
附原英文报道：
Mass. unveils $250 million in subsidies to protect residents from premium hikes
By Jason Laughlin Globe Staff,Updated January 8, 2026, 2:00 p.m.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
As Democrats spotlight affordability as a central campaign issue, Governor Maura Healey stood at a lectern Thursday to disclose the state’s use of $250 million from a trust fund to help Massachusetts residents confronting skyrocketing premiums for health insurance they get through the Affordable Care Act.
“So here’s what we’re going to do,” Healey said. “We’re going to use this trust fund money to provide more financial support where the federal government has taken those subsidies away,” she said.
The promise of action, however, downplayed that the financial commitment was not new and had already been baked into January insurance bills.
Audrey Morse Gasteier, executive director of the Massachusetts Health Connector, said the financial bulwark that benefited 270,000 residents is “part of the reason that we’re hanging in there in terms of enrollment and keeping people covered.”
But Thursday’s announcement won’t translate into any additional help.
Healey’s news conference coincided with the beginning of an election year in which three Republicans are vying for her job and voters are expected to be particularly focused on the state’s high cost of living. One survey last year found Massachusetts had the second highest cost of living in the country. People who saw their insurance premiums increase this year said it was one pricey bill amid an onslaught of growing expenses.
“I can’t believe how much it is when we go to the grocery store. Our electricity has gone up,“ said Judith O’Gara, whose family was hit with a $400 increase a month in insurance premiums for their ACA plan in January. ”We were just bracing ourselves to try to stretch the paycheck further.”
O’Gara, of Millis, is a part-time editor at community newspapers, and her husband is a self-employed computer animator and mural artist. She has added hours at work, she said, but it still wasn’t enough to qualify for health coverage through her employer, leaving the couple to buy insurance through the connector.
Healey also used the news conference to weigh in on a high-profile effort in Congress to revive the federal subsidies. Also on Thursday, the US House, with help from 17 Republican defectors facing competitive reelection races, passed a bill that would extend the subsidies for another three years. A small group of senators is considering proposing their own extension of the subsidies.
“We need to see people in Congress step up and take action and fight the president on this and get him to focus on the domestic agenda and how to make life more affordable for people,” Healey said.
The governor said she didn’t announce the influx of funds earlier because she had hoped Congress would act before the end of 2025.
“We gave up until the deadline to see if they take action,” she said.
ACA open enrollment extends through Jan. 23.
The infusion of funds from the Commonwealth Care Trust Fund brings the state’s total commitment to the insurance marketplace to $600 million, which Healey said is the largest support from any state in the country.
Federally subsidized insurance policies were first made available to people making less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $128,600 for a family of four, in 2009 under President Barack Obama’s ACA, also known as Obamacare. In 2021, Congress made those subsidies more generous for many recipients and extended them to people earning up to 500 percent of the federal poverty level. The expanded tax credits doubled participation in the ACA exchanges over the past four years, and by last year 337,000 people in Massachusetts received subsidized insurance through ConnectorCare.
The increases were slated to expire after four years, and without congressional action to preserve them, premiums reverted to pre-2021 levels for this year. People earning more than 400 percent of the poverty level became ineligible to receive subsidized insurance. State officials have estimated roughly 300,000 people could become uninsured statewide over the next decade, in part due to the expiration of the tax credits.
Democrats staged a 43-day shutdown last fall, the longest in US history, in an unsuccessful effort to preserve the expanded subsidies.
The Commonwealth Care Trust Fund predates the 2021 coverage expansion, said Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a nonprofit budget watchdog, and was established to support ConnectorCare programs. Massachusetts has long had a robust public insurance program, and the 2021 expansion essentially allowed the state to shift the cost of subsidies it had been paying to the federal government. Tapping the trust fund now essentially returns Massachusetts to the support levels it provided prior to 2021, Howgate said.
Regardless of the timing of Healey’s announcement, it is a reality that Massachusetts has a uniquely robust commitment to health insurance access, Howgate said.
“I do think that the idea that the state is able to offset some of those impacts is an important message to get out there,” he said. “This is real money.”
According to Healey’s office, a 45-year-old couple with two kids making $75,000 in Fall River previously paid $166 per month for the lowest-cost coverage. Without state action, their premium would have more than doubled. But with the infusion from the trust fund, they will pay $206 per month.
There’s only so much the state can do to mitigate the impacts of the expired subsidies, though. Because Congress didn’t extend them, people between 400 and 500 percent of the federal poverty level simply are ineligible to sign up for subsidized policies through the ACA marketplace. There are roughly 27,000 people statewide who cannot benefit from the state’s effort to compensate for the lost federal money, and those people are among those facing the biggest new insurance expenses.
Christa, 56, a hair dresser, and her husband, Gary, 69, a truck driver, earn less than $105,750 annually combined, just shy of 500 percent of the poverty level. The couple, who asked not to be named to protect their privacy, went from paying $282-a-month for Christa’s insurance with no deductible, to a private plan costing $725 a month with a $2000 deductible.
Gary, who is enrolled in Medicare, is still counting on Congress for a reprieve.
“I believe the Senate will be forced to do something, and we’re hoping,” he said.
