The Pennsylvania Independent: Trump’s policies have spurred increases in costs of food and health care, report says
There’s an affordability crisis in Pennsylvania as residents face mounting costs for health care, groceries, energy, and more due to economic policies implemented by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, according to a new report from Defend America Action, a progressive group that launched this year to challenge abuses of power at the federal level.
The report, a copy of which the Pennsylvania Independent reviewed prior to its release to the public this week, critiques Trump’s policies and has an introduction signed by Democratic Reps. Tina Davis, Mike Schlossberg, Arvind Venkat, Justin Fleming, and Josh Siegel that highlights the ways in which Trump’s policies have hurt Pennsylvanians. Other lawmakers could add their names in the coming days.
“Throughout his second term, Trump and Republicans in Congress have worked feverishly to obliterate the economic security of millions across the country – and working families are the ones paying the price for their reckless incompetence and determination to reward their rich and powerful friends at the expense of everyone else,” reads the introduction to the report that’s titled “Affordability Crisis.”
“That is why state leaders like ourselves are coming together to highlight what President Trump has done to hurt Pennsylvanian families across our great state and to fight back against this reckless administration. We hope you will join us in standing up to Trump and his agenda that are skyrocketing costs across Pennsylvania.”
‘Like the worst corruption and decadence of Roman emperors’
Venkat, an emergency physician who represents the 30th House District in the Pittsburgh suburbs, said in a statement sent to the Pennsylvania Independent that he sees firsthand how congressional Republicans’ refusal to renew the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, among other Trump administration policies, is harming Pennsylvanians.
“We have an affordability crisis in Pennsylvania that is directly related to a failure to renew the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, unconstitutional unilateral and price increasing tariffs, and cuts to food assistance and Medicaid,” Venkat said. “In the meantime, President Trump is giving tax cuts to billionaires, lining his own and his family’s pockets, and seemingly focused on spending hundreds of millions of dollars on gaudy changes to the White House. This is like the worst corruption and decadence of Roman emperors. We must reverse course for the sake of our health, economy, and democracy.”
Congress originally enacted the ACA tax credits in order to help people afford health insurance purchased through the state marketplace, known as Pennie, as Americans were losing their jobs and their insurance in the early days of the COVID pandemic. Those tax credits, which were an expansion of the Affordable Care Act subsidies and provided through the American Rescue Plan of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, are set to expire at the end of this year unless the Republican-led Congress and Trump extend them.
Democratic lawmakers have called for the continuation of those tax credits, while Republicans, who have waged a years-long campaign to kill the Affordable Care Act, have been largely resistant to do so. About three-quarters of the public nationwide supports extending the tax credits, according to a Nov. 6 survey from KFF, a nonprofit that focuses on health policy research.
About 22 million Americans stand to see their health insurance premium costs rise or lose coverage altogether if the tax credits are not extended, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In Pennsylvania, the state government in October approved higher premiums for ACA plans in 2026, due in part to the tax credits not being extended. Hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians are now slated to pay more for their health insurance premiums next year. According to Pennie, enrollees in Pennsylvania’s ACA marketplace, which total about half a million people, are expected to see, on average, a 102% increase in their health care insurance premiums.
The report points out that small businesses will be hit especially hard if the tax credits are not extended. According to a survey from Small Business for America’s Future, a national coalition of small business owners, 87% of small business owners want the tax credits extended. In Pennsylvania, about 101,000 small business owners and 63,000 self-employed workers rely on the ACA for health coverage, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Food and energy prices increase
It’s not just health care costs that are on the rise. Pennsylvanians are spending more on groceries and energy bills as well, the report notes.
A majority of Americans — 71% — reported spending more on groceries this year compared to last year in a Washington Post-Ipsos poll conducted in late October. Grocery prices have risen under the Trump administration, with federal statistics showing average grocery prices in September being about 2.7% higher than they were a year before and about 1.4% higher than they were when Trump took office in January.
Those food prices rose after Trump implemented tariffs — taxes on goods imported from other countries — on items from across the globe.
On Nov. 14, Trump announced he would exempt a number of food items from the tariffs he announced in April, which had resulted in small businesses across Pennsylvania raising prices for consumers. Those exempted items include coffee, tea, tropical fruits and fruit juices, cocoa, spices, bananas, oranges, tomatoes, and beef. Trump’s announcement follows Republican losses in a number of critical elections on Nov. 4, including the Supreme Court retention election in Pennsylvania and gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia.
Following the Nov. 4 election, Trump went on Fox News and claimed that affordability was a “new word” being pushed by Democrats. He also conceded grocery prices need to go down.
“Well, I do say this, beef we have to get down,” Trump said in a transcript published by Roll Call. “I think of groceries. You know, it’s an old-fashioned word, but it’s a beautiful word.”
Alongside mounting grocery prices, energy costs have risen as well.
Electricity costs are expected to increase by $170 this year compared to last for Pennsylvanians, according to a November report from Democratic members of the congressional Joint Economic Committee. More families falling behind on bills as a result of these increases, according to reporting from PBS. A Nov. 17 analysis from PBS found that there was a 3.8% increase in “households with severely overdue utility bills.”
Struggling Pennsylvanians
Commonwealth residents report feeling financially strapped in an October poll from Franklin & Marshall College, the Defend America Action report points out.
Nearly two in five — 36% — of survey respondents said they are worse off financially than one year ago, and just 16% said they are better off. Twenty-two percent said the economy — including unemployment, housing and real estate costs, and higher gas and utility prices — is the second most important problem in the state. Twenty-three percent report government and politics as being the state’s number one problem. That response came prior to a state budget impasse ending and Gov. Josh Shapiro signing a new state budget on Nov. 12.
The same Franklin & Marshall survey shows Trump’s favorability slipping in Pennsylvania. Fewer voters — 41% — report Trump doing an excellent or good job than the 58% who believe he is doing a fair or poor job.
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