Some farmers says Trump’s proposed bailout won’t help with rising health care costs : NPR
President Trump has proposed a $12 billion plan to help farmers across the country, but some say they also need help with rising health insurance costs they could face if some subsidies expire.
TO MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Trump plans to give $12 billion to farmers across the country. And Trump said Monday that the one-time payments would come from tariff revenue.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: This relief will provide much-needed certainty to farmers as they market this year’s crop and look ahead to next year’s crop.
MARTÍNEZ: These tariffs that Trump says are used to fund farm aid are also one of the reasons some farmers are in trouble. Another problem is rising health care costs. Gulf States Newsroom’s Drew Hawkins spoke with some Louisiana farmers about their concerns.
DREW HAWKINS, BYLINE: James Davis (ph) is a third-generation row crop farmer in northeast Louisiana. He grows cotton, corn and soybeans on approximately 2,500 acres.
JAMES DAVIS: I’ve worked in agriculture most of my life.
HAWKINS: Farmers have been hit really hard this year, Davis says, even with what he considers the best crop he’s ever had. He says tariffs imposed by the Trump administration mean they can’t export their products because other countries have also imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products. When farmers can’t sell their crops and make enough money, it’s harder to get farm loans the following year. Davis says the money promised by President Trump can’t come soon enough.
DAVIS: I agreed with my banker who predicted 2026, and without bailouts, it’s hard to make farm loans work on paper. It is therefore imperative, and very imperative, that the Trump administration make these payments as quickly as possible.
HAWKINS: It’s not just farm loans that are harder to get. Davis says because farmers have struggled to make ends meet this year, it’s also harder to afford health insurance. He and his wife are able to pay for their health insurance thanks to premium tax credits enhanced through the Affordable Care Act. These grants are set to expire at the end of the month. If that happens, he says the cost of their insurance will quadruple.
DAVIS: That number worked out to about $2,700 a month.
HAWKINS: Davis describes himself as a moderate Democrat. A poll released this month by the health policy research group KFF shows that 72% of Republicans enrolled in marketplace plans support expanding the subsidies. This mirrors the case of people like Daniel Rhodes (ph), a Republican who uses the subsidies to help him and his wife pay for health insurance.
DANIEL RHODES: There are a lot of people who won’t be able to eat such a big change overnight. I mean, I don’t know how people can do it.
HAWKINS: Rhodes lives in West Monroe, Louisiana, a small town surrounded by farmland in House Speaker Mike Johnson’s district. Rhodes, a landscaper, says he supports President Johnson’s leadership except when it comes to health care and ACA subsidies.
RHODES: It was an important issue where I really took the opposite side of the fence and said, look, this is a crazy hill to die on, to say we’re going to block the budget on health care subsidies. Like, dude, pick another one.
HAWKINS: Rhodes isn’t the only Republican in Johnson’s district who supports extending the subsidies. Susie Halley runs a food pantry in Farmerville, Union Parish. She says local farmers are already struggling to pay health care premiums and that Congress needs to stop playing partisan politics.
SUSIE HALLEY: Mr. Johnson or whoever. He could be Republican or Democrat, I don’t care. Let’s solve the problem.
HAWKINS: This week, the Senate is expected to vote on a Democratic proposal to extend enhanced premium tax credits for three years. But the project is unlikely to garner the votes it needs to move forward. In the House, President Johnson said recently that he plans to present to his caucus a plan to reduce health insurance costs, and he added that it is, quote, “only our party is going to reduce premiums.”
For NPR News, I’m Drew Hawkins in New Orleans.
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