Source: The Gazette
As Commissioner of Colorado’s Division of Insurance, part of my job is to keep health insurance affordable for Coloradans. Today, the progress we’ve made to get more people insured at lower costs is threatened by Congressional Republican leadership’s refusal to take the simple and straightforward step to extend Enhanced Premium Tax Credits (EPTCs), a step Congress could – and should – take today.
We know that when hardworking people are kicked off of their health insurance, it drives up costs for all of us. Health needs don’t disappear; more people end up putting off care and ending up in emergency rooms.
Today, Congress has a responsibility – one that will keep Coloradans healthy and save people money. Congress needs to extend the EPTCs that keep health insurance affordable for so many people. If they fail to act, they’ll move our country backwards with skyrocketing health insurance rates for our communities.
Without Congressional action, thousands of Colorado families will see huge spikes to their health insurance rates that will drive up costs and force far too many people to make the impossible decision of paying for their rent or mortgage, or keeping health care coverage.
We have seen the transformative impact that Congress can have to get more Americans covered at lower cost.
In 2021, Congress determined that Americans should not have to pay more than 8.5% of their income on health insurance and passed legislation to expand coverage support through EPTCs that made health insurance more affordable for more Americans.
This proved to be a massive success: the affordability barrier was banished, enrollment in health care plans doubled across the country, and, in Colorado, more than 225,000 people currently rely on and build their budgets around EPTCs to afford their health insurance.
This issue can’t wait until the credits expire at the end of the year — if Congress does not extend them by the end of September, it will likely be too late to impact the premiums Coloradans will pay starting in the new year. Coloradans will have thousands more in monthly expenses or be forced off their health care. This will look like a family of four that makes $128,600 dealing with premium increases of $13,000 to $25,000 on average next year.
That is an astronomical amount that will force hardworking Coloradans to make impossible decisions in order to keep health insurance coverage unless they can come up with an extra $1,000 — $2,000 each month. Without Congressional action, the uninsured rate in Colorado and throughout the country will spike — driving up costs for all of us.
Congress has a choice. They can vote to extend EPTCs to ensure that thousands of Colorado families throughout the state, and millions of families across the country, don’t lose their healthcare.
Or they can send the country backwards in health. I hope, for everyone’s sake, Congress makes the right choice.
