COLUMBUS, Ohio — This was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal.

With health insurance costs poised to spike for more than a half-million Ohioans , U.S. Sen. Jon Husted offered a compromise. It consists mostly of raising costs or cutting benefits for low and middle-income consumers whose pay and insurance plans aren’t as good as his own.

The 43-day government shutdown that ended Nov. 13 was primarily over subsidies created in 2021 to help people purchase health insurance on exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act.

They’re set to expire in less than three weeks, which would cause premiums to more than double on average for nearly 600,000 Ohioans and 23 million Americans .

With the country mired in an affordability crisis , large majorities of Americans

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