On December 31, Colorado families will be hit with some of the largest health care cost increases we’ve seen in more than a decade because President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have blocked Democratic efforts to extend the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits that have kept coverage affordable since the pandemic.
I was in Congress when the ACA was negotiated and signed into law. While we were forced to accept less than the universal health care we wanted, we secured protections that have saved tens of thousands of lives: ending discrimination against people with preexisting conditions, allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance while they find their financial footing, and guaranteeing that every plan covers basic, essential care.
This current fight over premiums is showing, once again, the flaws in our health care system.
Republicans have made clear that they have no appetite for meaningful reforms that would lower costs and increase access, like Medicare for All. They have been unable to devise any serious alternative to the ACA, instead advocating for failed policies like high-deductible plans and direct payments to Health Savings Accounts. They have subjected the ACA to death by a thousand cuts, weakening it at every opportunity. The fight around these tax credits is more of the same, tired playbook.
Realistically, Republican opposition means that larger reforms are unlikely in this current Congress. But that is why there is an urgent need to extend the enhanced tax credits, because they are the only thing standing between hundreds of thousands of Coloradans and skyrocketing health care bills. Now, notices are going out across the state warning families exactly what they’ll be forced to pay without Congressional action. The numbers are staggering.
According to the Colorado Division of Insurance, 225,000 people will face an average premium increase of 101%, which means their monthly costs will more than double overnight.
For many of my constituents, this is a real financial crisis. In my district, a family of four making $128,000 are seeing their premiums for a standard silver plan jump by $14,000 next year. That’s not a number any household can absorb without making painful choices.
Let me be clear: this crisis is completely avoidable.
If Congress simply extended the enhanced ACA tax credits, something Democrats have been fighting for all year, these increases would be softened dramatically. In fact, the premium spike would be cut by more than 80%, and lower-income families wouldn’t see any increase at all. And nationwide, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that continuing these credits would keep over 5 million Americans from losing their health insurance.
Republicans know this, and still, they refuse to take the easy step of extending these tax credits to give us time to negotiate a long-term solution.
Meanwhile, the consequences will ripple across Colorado’s entire health care system. If thousands of Coloradans lose coverage, hospitals will be forced care for more people who cannot afford to pay. Those costs will then get passed to people with employer-based insurance. That means higher costs even for those who don’t get care through the marketplace. If Congress doesn’t act, our whole health care system will be at risk.
As the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, I’ve been demanding for months that my colleagues across the aisle join us in extending these tax credits. But open enrollment has already begun, and families need certainty before the new year.
Congress can solve this problem today. We can vote to extend the enhanced tax credits and prevent these devastating premium spikes. We do not lack a solution; we lack political will from my Republican colleagues.
Time is running out. I will keep fighting for my Republican colleagues to put politics aside and join me in lowering costs for Colorado families.
U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette represents Colorado’s 1st Congressional District.
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