Americans from Across the Country Sound the Alarm on Rising Premiums & Republican Efforts to Dismantle ACA Protections

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, joined five Americans from across the country in demanding Congress take action to extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced tax credits.

The virtual press conference comes as millions of Americans are facing higher health care costs due to Republicans’ refusal to extend enhanced premium tax credits for ACA plans. As Americans brace for a looming health care crisis that will put millions at risk of going uninsured, Republicans on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations are holding a hearing today further seeking to undermine the ACA.

Victoria Sylvester – Traverse City, Michigan

“I am 55 years old, and I’m from Traverse City, Michigan. My husband and I are both small business owners. He’s in the construction trades, and I am a hair stylist. We work hard, we pay our taxes, and we contribute to society. What we lack, though, and most small business owners lack, are employees that would enable us to have the discounts a small group policy has. We also make too much money to be on Medicaid, so before the ACA and the Enhanced Premium Tax Credit (EPTC), we simply could not afford insurance, and we went without it for years. It was very unsettling. It was like playing Russian roulette, but we had no choice. Since the ACA and the EPTC, we have quality insurance that we can afford, which thank God, because in 2022 I was, out of the blue, diagnosed with an aggressive form of stage three ovarian cancer.”

“Renewing the EPTC will empower people like me to take charge of our health, to continue working and running businesses and care for ourselves and loved ones. I am calling on all of you to support the ACA and renew the EPTC to help cancer survivors like me stay healthy and alive. Nobody should have to choose between financial devastation or death.”

DonnaMarie Woodson – Charlotte, North Carolina

“We are in a health care crisis. Since Donald Trump and the Congressional Republicans have taken power, they have put on a full blown assault on health care, and unless they stop their scheme to rip away tax credits from working families, over 20 million Americans will lose their coverage, and they’ll log into the ACA marketplace and find that their health plans are more than twice as expensive as they were last year. Over 4 million will lose coverage because these skyrocketing prices are simply unaffordable, and why? To hand tax breaks to billionaires and corporations and that’s just obscene.”

“It’s very personal for me. I’m a 10-year survivor of both stage three colon cancer and stage one breast cancer, and I’m able to speak with you today because of grace and the Affordable Care Act, which literally saved my life… It saved my life, because if I would not have gotten those screenings, I would not be here today. I was in late stage. So, it’s, it’s very distressing, disturbing, and just, it’s just evil, because eliminating tax credits will gut the ACA and cost the lives of millions of Americans, and this cavalier attitude by the Republicans and Donald Trump just can’t stand.”

Aaron Lehman – Polk County, Iowa

“I’m a fifth-generation farmer here in central Iowa, and I grow corn, soybeans, oats and hay with my family. And we’re farmers because we take a great pride in growing food for our community and for people around the world. And I get to serve as the President of the Iowa Farmers Union. You know, the Affordable Care Act has been one of the best investments in rural health care in decades. And at the Farmers Union, our members are telling us how important the ACA has become for their families, and their farming operations, and their local rural health care system. And I know this personally. My family benefits from the ACA marketplace insurance and from an ACA market insurance policy, and we appreciate the affordability provided by the enhanced premium tax credits.”

“Now, earlier this fall, we already heard that my family and thousands and thousands of farmers learned that we would see pretty steep health care insurance premiums increases, averaging about 18%. Now on top of that, we’re learning that unless Congress acts, those enhanced premium tax credits won’t be available. For our farm, that means for the very same policy that we have now, we would anticipate that our costs for health care insurance would be about 220% of what we’re paying now. Our farmers are being stressed right now by low prices because of trade wars, increased production costs, and tens of millions of dollars in cuts to USDA programs. And a dramatic increase in health care premiums for 2026 will crash family budgets on farms and intensify the economic crisis that rural America is feeling right now.”

“The success of the ACA was that it meant that people were able to invest more in their farming operations. Sometimes bringing the next generation on the farm, sometimes bringing new innovation on the farm in conservation and local community food systems.”

Amy Raslevich – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

“I’m one of 16% of Americans who’s either self-employed or runs a small business or works for one. One of the people that both parties continue to talk about is the backbone of America, the ranchers and the farmers like Aaron, the realtors, the shop owners like Victoria, the dentists, the restaurant owners.”

“Half the people who bought insurance on the marketplace last year fall in that group, and it's actually been a success. What does the marketplace do? It guarantees that insurance that is offered actually covers preexisting conditions; that it gives us preventive services and screenings that we need for things like cancer, essential health benefits, behavioral health care and eliminates annual lifetime benefits and other protections that everybody with employer-based insurance or Medicare or Medicaid are already guaranteed.”

“Now it’s been a success, and the first Trump Administration actually made it easier for brokers to help people find the right insurance. The Biden Administration came along and gave more subsidies, so more people don’t pay premiums. They did this after research found that nobody double dips. You’re not getting insurance from an employer and one at the marketplace, maybe one or two who forgot to cancel. But what it did is it helped younger people, healthier people actually afford insurance before they needed it, which brought premiums down for everybody. Now they want to take these subsidies away, which is going to more than double the cost, and leave on the insurance plans the sick, which is the point of insurance is to bring everybody in, and they’re kicking everybody off.”

Alejandro Lopez – San Antonio, Texas

“One of the biggest pieces of the ACA that impacted me personally is the dependent coverage extension, which allows any young adult under the age of 26 to remain on their parents’ insurance. When I got the diagnosis, I was just starting a new job, and I had to rely on my parents’ insurance. The extension got me through the beginning stages of my chemotherapy treatments. A friend of mine was in a similar situation. She had no insurance of her own and had to rely on her mom’s coverage in order to continue with her treatments for leukemia. And I know so many more people just like us.”

“When we turn 27, we lose the lifeline of our parents’ insurance, suddenly we'll be standing on the edge of a health care cliff, and there'll be no safety net below us. The Affordable Care Act also provides enhanced tax credits for cancer survivors like myself. I'm tied to a schedule of expensive critical care, high medical bills, ongoing prosthesis management, and those crucial scans to confirm my cancer hasn’t a relapse. This isn’t optional care. It’s survival.”

“If the crucial enhanced tax credits that make ACA coverage affordable are allowed to expire, if I lose my job in this tough economy, I simply won’t be able to afford my cancer care.”

A full video of this week’s press conference is available here.

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