Wisconsinites face increased costs with ACA subsidy expiration

Last week, the US Senate rejected two rival healthcare bills aimed at addressing Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to end in three weeks.

If that deadline is reached, healthcare premiums will more than double for millions of Americans. Physicians and clinics serving low-income and uninsured patients are preparing for an influx.

U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) is pushing back. She held a virtual press conference last Thursday, ahead of another Senate vote to extend the enhanced premium tax credits.

Kelly Bruns, of Hayward, said she would face skyrocketing premium increases if the credits expire.

“Healthcare should not be a partisan issue, it is a human issue affecting families in every district and state, regardless of political affiliation,” says Bruns.

Bruns says that the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, has saved her family several times. In 2012 her father was battling a brain tumor with a terminal diagnosis. A provision in the ACA saved her parents from having to declare bankruptcy. 

Bruns says the ACA has also been a “godsend” to her husband, a military veteran and a career firefighter, who had to end his career early due to injuries on the job. 

Bruns says that they currently pay $2 per month for healthcare because of their low household income. If the premium tax credits expire, that will jump to over $1,600, which is 40% of their monthly income.

Shana Verstegen and her husband work at a community gym in Madison and have two young children.

She says they pay $400 a month. Without the extended premium tax credits, they’ll pay  over $700 a month starting in  2026.

“We’re a middle class, healthy, hardworking family. And like so many other families, we are simply struggling to keep up,” says Verstegen.

Verstegen says that they’ve added more hours to their work week and have even considered leaving the gym for a job that offers employer sponsored health insurance.