MINOT — Now that the government shutdown is over, Congress will need to figure out what to do about an impending spike in health insurance premiums for Americans (including tens of thousands of North Dakotans) who purchase individual plans through the Affordable Care Act exchanges.

Those premiums currently enjoy heavy subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year, which would mean dramatic cost increases for the insured unless Congress renews the subsidies. On the other side of that coin is that years of fiscal profligacy, which has become particularly acute under the terms of Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, has left our nation with little capacity to continue them.

We are already $38 trillion in debt, and adding a couple of trillion dollars more every year.

But the d

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