'You Are a Traitor': Sarah H. Sanders Ripped for Complaining About Health Costs She Helped Cause
By: politicaldig (The Daily Boulder)
Hey Arkansas MAGAS.....this is what you voted for.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
August 18, 2025 9:47 am 
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. (File photo)SHARE
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is under fire after complaining about skyrocketing health insurance premiums—costs driven up by the very policies she and her party support.
Last week, Sanders slammed proposed 2026 rate hikes by BlueCross and Centene, calling them "unacceptable" and urging Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Alan McClain to block them. But critics say her outrage is nothing more than political theater.
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"Tough talk, but talk is cheap. Health care is not."
Rates for individual health plans in Arkansas are set to rise by an average of 36% next year. Some plans may jump by more than 50%, according to filings with the state's Insurance Department. That's a huge leap from the modest 2-6% increases seen in recent years.
What's fueling the spike? The expiration of enhanced subsidies from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — a direct result of Republican inaction in Congress.
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These subsidies, boosted during the pandemic under President Biden's American Rescue Plan and extended through the Inflation Reduction Act, made health coverage more affordable for millions. In Arkansas alone, the number of people buying individual plans more than doubled since 2020 thanks to these subsidies.
Now they're ending — and Republicans are doing nothing to stop it.
Insurance companies warn that without the extra help, healthier people will drop coverage, leaving behind a sicker, costlier insurance pool. That means higher premiums for everyone who stays insured.
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Here's what that looks like in real life:
A 30-year-old single mom in Arkansas making $40,000 now pays $61/month for a decent plan. In 2026, she'll pay $214/month — a 250% increase.
A four-person family earning $70,000 will see premiums jump from $138 to $436/month.
A 64-year-old couple making $90,000? Their premium explodes from $638 to $2,915/month — $35,000 a year.
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This isn't a fluke. It's a direct result of Republican policies.
Trump's so-called "Big, Beautiful Bill" preserved tax cuts for the wealthy but let health care subsidies expire. That bill also slashed federal health spending by hundreds of billions — most of it hitting Medicaid, the main safety net for low-income Americans.
Sanders cheered that bill, even writing a Washington Post op-ed in support. Not once did she mention protecting subsidies or helping Arkansans afford coverage.
Now she's pointing fingers at insurance companies — not the party that set this crisis in motion.
"Corporate profits over Arkansas's people," Sanders said last week.
That's rich coming from a governor who: Cut corporate income taxes three times in just 18 months, slashing revenue by $212 million last year alone, and is pushing Medicaid work requirements expected to knock thousands off their health coverage.
She rolled back postpartum Medicaid coverage to just 2 months, making Arkansas one of only two states doing so. She also used taxpayer money to fund school vouchers and travel to Davos, Paris, and Israel, while Arkansas suffers under the third-highest state and local sales tax rate in the country.
The backlash online was swift and brutal:
"You don't give a f*** about Arkansas," said Marlon M. Farid. "You only care for Israel."
"You are a traitor to America," wrote @Chris47052.
"Nobody trusts you," said @MittenMaverick.
@SharonLovish added: "Arkansas has the third-highest combined state and local sales tax rate in the nation… You do not care about Arkansas."
@irishrygirl laid it out plainly: "Thanks @GOP, this is what happens when you gut Medicaid by $800 billion."
@Campbell297 slammed Sanders for her misplaced priorities: "You invested $100 million of Arkansas money into Israel's genocide fund. Shame on you."
@cindylpc asked: "What do the people of Arkansas deserve?? Please get your priorities straight."
The fury isn't just about premiums. It's about betrayal, misplaced priorities, and pretending to care while quietly gutting the safety net.
Sanders wants to act like a champion of working people — but her own policies are pushing them to the edge.
People see through the game. They're not fooled.
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the MAGA morons will re-elect her in the next election
I have a name for her but it's not one for polite company
I'm convinced she has a penis, and she needs to prove she doesn't ...
oh wait, if she disrobed and revealed 8 nipples and a corkscrew tail, that would be even more disturbing ...
reeeeeeeeeet, reeeeeeeeeeet, saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaraaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, reeeet, reeeet ....
she's probably one of the dogs her brother was convicted of torturing ...
that makes me exempt, let's hear it ...
Sarah C U Next Tuesday ta bee
Yup
And all the time they were in control, Democrats didn't go a goddamn thing to "fix the problem".
You don't know a goddamned thing about Arkansas
Good thing I didn't say anything about Arkansas.
The seed is about Arkansas. Did you not read the article?
Don't come into my seeds to troll especially if you aren't going to bother to read the contents
good luck with that ...
did he come back?
In deep red states they can get away with this crap.
Especially in a state that's been republican controlled for nearly 30 years. It was republican controlled when I moved here 28 years ago
What she needs to do is get rid of the regressive personal property tax that Bill Clinton and his fellow yellow dog democrats implemented way way back
We were just talking about this in general terms this morning at work. Insurance carriers took losses this year as health care provider costs rose. We have a couple of carriers that have decided they don't need to pay outside brokers commissions on policies that have been in place for years and said they will continue that through the next year. A particular carrier said we can't even service those people next year.
We have a company wide meeting scheduled tomorrow to discuss the upcoming Annual Enrollment Period and Individual Enrollment Period.
Good luck. I'm on TriCare so I don't have to get insurance thru a private company
I have VA, but I work for a medicare and individual insurance broker company. The individual health care insurance customers are going to shit their pants when they get premium notices this year.
Yeah, ever since I was eligible for Medicare I've used a broker to go thru all the plans to get me the best supplimental plan for my needs as well as the best Part D plan based on my current prescriptions. Last year they had said that because of changes to Part D coverage due to the ACA, insurance companies were no longer going to pay any commissions for those Part D plans. The broker stated they were going to continue to review the plans even though they were doing the work without reimbursement.
Kind of wonder what changes will be coming in December for the next enrollment window.
I was told by our agents here it was profit loss with certain carriers. We moved a lot of people to other Part D plans last year, but for a number of people we left them with the plan we didn't get paid for. We even wrote some new people with that plan. It was the right plan for them, like you said, even if we didn't get paid for it.
Our working model last year was to send out a sheet for all customers that wanted a review to list their prescriptions so we could run those lists early and save customer time. I'm not an agent, but I spent a lot of time going over those Part D plans and out of pocket costs with customers after the agents did their work.
Yeah... me too. Agents will start getting training on 2026 plans next month.
This couldn't have happened to a better gal.
Arkansans, (Trout excluded, of course) maybe actually do some thinking next time you have a gubernatorial election.
I can't stand her. She lost a lot of weight but she used a weight loss drug. No way her former fat ass did any exercise of changed her diet
why is she even bothering? isn't her dad in the promised land preparing for the 2nd coming during his term as ambassador?
Because she is out to grift as much money as she can out of Arkansans. Her mentor taught her well
In other words, she's a fairly normal politician. I wonder if it will take another revolution to get 'party' out of politics and get politicians back to representing the people.
oh look, your seed is turning into a "both sides" discussion ...
Yeah well....what I can do? People insist on voicing their opionions
I like it better when the fence sitters get knocked off their fences and their balls are still left hanging ...
... and what about opie's onions?
Chop them up and put them in a stew?
>sniff< boo hoo ... you made me think of smaab.
It's amazing how much taxpayer money is being thrown at private insurance companies in the name of affordability. I could see using this as justification to advocate for nationalized medicine. But it boggles my mind that this is being used to give private insurance companies access to more of the Arkansas treasury. Government subsidies to private insurance companies does not make healthcare more affordable.
How much does healthcare cost in Arkansas? Insurance companies only pay the medical bills. If insurance companies need this much cash to pay the medical bills then shouldn't someone be looking at the healthcare providers? It sure looks like somebody is getting rich and it's not the patients.
some people seem to forget that all the medical insurance friendly amendments were written by them for the ACA, voted for by republicans to be included, who then voted against the ACA and have tried to repeal it about 60 times. this is basically the same bullshit. all the trump dick suckers, er, supporters bulldoze his agenda into law and when the blowback begins, they start back pedaling ...
I guess they must like picking the corn kernels out of turds ...
One of the examples cited in the seed article is: "A four-person family earning $70,000 will see premiums jump from $138 to $436/month."
Presumably it costs at least $436/month to insure this family of four. ACA doesn't change that cost. Subsidizing the premium for the family so they pay $138/month still means the cost to insure the family is at least $436/month. The private insurance company is going to collect at least $5,232/year in premiums for this family of four no matter who pays the premiums. Blaming Republicans won't change the arithmetic.
Arkansas has a 6.5% state sales tax. Should Arkansas increase its sales tax rate to cover the cost of health insurance? Should Arkansas increase taxes on business (that will be passed on to consumers)? Where should the money come from to pay insurance premiums charged by private financial businesses?
It costs waaaay more than that to insure a family of 4. Even in Arkansas.
I suspect that's true but the numbers provided in the article illustrate the point. Health insurance is sold by private financial institutions whose sole purpose is to pay medical bills. These insurance companies can engage in all sorts of financial activities but that doesn't alter the simple fact that the sole purpose of health insurance is to pay medical bills.
Healthcare providers set the prices and determine the cost of delivering medical care. The only purpose of health insurance is to pay medical bills; not to lower the cost of delivering medical care.
Yeah. You're right. And their administrative costs and profits are capped by statute.
As you say, it's interesting that nobody questions the costs at the provider level. It's also interesting that people are so upset about going back to Obama level subsidies. This is what they wanted.
bite your tongue...this is a very, deep, red state. They give businesses and industry tax breaks so they will bring their business here
And home of Gov. Bill Clinton. Clinton got a sales tax increase, imposed vice taxes, and got progressive corporate taxes. The interesting thing about those Clinton taxes is they were all paid by consumers.
Mike Huckabee raised more taxes than did Bill Clinton. Huckabee got increases in sales taxes, vice taxes, and corporate taxes. All those taxes were paid by consumers, too.
The corporate tax rate under Huckabee was 6.5% on net corp. income above $100,000. Today the corp. tax rate is progressive with taxes imposed on all net corp. income with a top rate of 4.3% on income above $11,000. Arkansas may have lowered the top corp. tax rate but the tax base was dramatically expanded. I haven't looked it up but it is possible that Arkansas is collecting more revenue from corp. taxes today than when the max. corp. tax rate was higher. Giving a sweetheart tax deal to bigger businesses probably cost consumers a lot more since they're who provides the money to pay business taxes.
The point is that Arkansas covering health insurance subsidies would need to raise revenue. Under ACA the states are not required to subsidize premiums so Sarah Huckabee could just gripe about cuts in Federal subsidies and not do anything. But those Federal subsidies need revenue, too. Someone, somewhere has to pay taxes to provide money to subsidize insurance premiums.
How does public money provided financial institutions whose sole purpose is to pay medical bills make healthcare more affordable? Subsidizing premiums doesn't make the insurance cost less. Patients can pay for medical services with a credit card just as easily as the Federal government. Shifting that debt onto everyone's shoulders doesn't make delivery of medical care less expensive.
Nerm. I live here. I know all that. My comment probably should have had the sarcasm tag
I got the sarcasm. (That's why I mentioned Gov. Bill Clinton. As I recall, Clinton wasn't exactly popular with all of Arkansas.) I'm sure Walmart and J.B. Hunt would fight any tax just because its a tax and its a fight.
One of my former co-workers moved to somewhere around Bentonville. I lived about 100 miles north of the Arkansas border many decades ago. (Almost due north of West Plains and Cherokee Village.) One of the TV channels we watched was located south of Springfield, MO, so we saw a lot of Arkansas news, too.
I mentioned all the tax stuff for people who don't live there.
hitch a plow to that beast and apply the whip ...