Some farmers says Trump’s proposed bailout won’t help with rising health care costs

President Trump has proposed a $12 billion plan to help farmers across the country, but some say they also need help with the rising health insurance costs they may face if certain subsidies expire.

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

President Trump has a plan to give $12 billion to farmers across the country. And Trump said Monday that the one-time payments will come from tariff revenue.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: This relief will provide much-needed certainty to farmers as they get this year’s harvest to market and look ahead to next year’s crops.

MARTÍNEZ: Those tariffs that Trump says are paying for the farm relief are also one of the reasons some farmers are struggling. Another is rising health care costs. Drew Hawkins with the Gulf States Newsroom spoke with some farmers in Louisiana 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 around 2,500 acres.

JAMES DAVIS: Just been farming pretty much all my life.

HAWKINS: Farmers have been hit really hard this year, Davis says, even with what he says is the best crop he’s ever had. He says the Trump administration’s tariffs mean they can’t export their commodities because other countries have also placed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods. When farmers can’t sell their crop and make back enough money, it makes it harder to get crop loans the following year. Davis says the money President Trump is pledging can’t come soon enough.

DAVIS: I was in with my banker projecting 2026, and without bailouts, it is hard to make crop loans work on paper. So it’s imperative, and very imperative, that the Trump administration get these payments out as soon as possible.

HAWKINS: It’s not just crop loans that are harder to get. Davis says because farmers have been struggling to make ends meet this year, it’s also harder to pay for health insurance. He and his wife are able to pay for their health insurance because of enhanced premium tax credits through the Affordable Care Act. Those subsidies are set to expire at the end of the month. If that happens, he says the cost for their insurance will quadruple.

DAVIS: That number was like $2,700 per month.

HAWKINS: Davis describes himself as a moderate Democrat. A poll released this month from the health policy research group KFF shows 72% of Republicans enrolled in marketplace plans support extending the subsidies. That’s reflective of people like Daniel Rhodes (ph), a Republican who uses the subsidies to help him and his wife pay for their health insurance.

DANIEL RHODES: There’s a lot of people who won’t be able to eat that big of a change overnight. I mean, I don’t know how people can.

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 Speaker Johnson’s leadership, except when it comes to health care and the ACA subsidies.

RHODES: This was a big one that I really just took the opposite side of the fence and said, like, look, this is a crazy hill to die on, to say we’re going to lock up the budget over health care subsidies. Like, man, pick any other.

HAWKINS: Rhodes isn’t the only Republican in Johnson’s district who supports extending the subsidies. Susie Halley runs a food pantry in Farmerville in Union Parish. She says local farmers are already struggling to pay health care premiums, and Congress needs to stop playing party politics.

SUSIE HALLEY: Mr. Johnson or whoever else. It may be Republican or a Democrat, I don’t care. Let’s fix the problem.

HAWKINS: This week, the Senate is expected to vote on a Democratic proposal to extend the enhanced premium tax credits for three years. But the plan is not expected to get the votes it needs to advance. Over in the House, Speaker Johnson said recently that he plans to present his caucus with a plan to bring down health insurance costs, and adds it’s, quote, “only our party that is going to bring down premiums.”

For NPR News, I’m Drew Hawkins in New Orleans.

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