Fact vs. Spin: Did Jon Husted Vote "Nine Times" to Raise Your Health Premiums? Here Is the Record
Sherrod Brown says Sen. Jon Husted "voted to increase health care premiums nine times." The sticker shock Ohio families felt this year is real. We checked who wrote the deadline, and who tried to extend it.
By Clara Hughes
ALTAS WORLD NEWS ANALYSIS | MIDTERM FACT VS. SPIN | By Clara Hughes, Chief Opinion Editor | 6-min read Midterm Fact vs. Spin #4. Altas World News is independent and not affiliated with any campaign or party. No campaign reviewed or directed this piece. On Monday evening, Democrat Sherrod Brown posted his sharpest attack yet on Ohio's Republican senator. "Jon Husted voted to increase health care premiums nine times," Brown wrote on X. "Many Ohioans saw insurance costs double or triple, and it was Jon Husted who sat in Washington and cast the votes to make it happen" [1]. It is Brown's signature line. His campaign has used the "nine times" charge since at least June [2]. And the stakes are high: Sabato's Crystal Ball rates Ohio's Senate race a Toss-up and says Republicans need four of the five Toss-ups to keep the Senate [3]. The Cook Political Report rates it a Toss Up too [4]. So we went to the record: the law, the Senate votes and the Congressional Record. Key Takeaways "Costs double or triple": LARGELY TRUE. KFF projected that if the enhanced Obamacare subsidies expired, what subsidized enrollees pay would more than double on average, up 114% [5]. In Ohio, some plan costs more than doubled, and the state saw the nation's steepest percentage drop in marketplace enrollment [6]. "Voted to increase premiums nine times": SPIN. Neither Brown's campaign nor the Ohio Democratic Party lists the nine votes in the releases we reviewed [2][7]. The subsidies expired on a date Democrats wrote into law in 2022, with