Tammy Baldwin
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — One of Wisconsin’s senators was in Green Bay Tuesday, pushing for an extension of funding for insurance coverage under our nation’s health care insurance system that is set to expire at the end of the year.
Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin held a roundtable at Casa ALBA Melanie, a Hispanic resource center in Green Bay, to discuss the issue.
“People are recognizing that they’re on the verge of hearing about a new round of increases in health care costs, particularly their premium costs for next year,” Baldwin said.
Funding for the health insurance system, known as the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, has become a sticking point in the battle on Capitol Hill to avoid a government shutdown. President Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending plan passed this summer rolled back significant portions of the ACA, and Democrats want at least some of those cuts to be reversed in exchange for their support of a funding bill.
During Tuesday’s roundtable discussion, Baldwin heard from invited Northeast Wisconsin organizations and businesses who shared the impacts the possible changes to the nation’s health insurance system will have on them.
“Most nonprofits can’t afford really robust health insurance plans, even for our staff,” Casa ALBA Melanie Executive Director Amanda Garcia said.
“We’re a new business. We’re making it work, but just for us personally, I don’t know how we’re going to make that work. I don’t know how our employees make that work, and even our customers,” Kim Paul of Vintage Rose Bakery said.
At the heart of the issue is a pot of funding for insurance coverage under the ACA, which capped premiums at 8.5% of income, as was approved during the Biden administration. The Washington Post reports that ACA marketplace consumers could see their premiums rise by more than 75% on average when enhanced tax subsidies to purchase ACA marketplace insurance plans expire at the end of the year, if the funding is not extended by the Republican-controlled Congress.
The GOP says the premium tax credits are too costly to continue and were only intended for relief during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That’s going to effect over a quarter-million Wisconsinites. They’re going to see higher premiums, and in some cases, the premiums are going to spike up so much that they are no longer going to be able to afford to pay them,” warned Baldwin. “This is going to have devastating impacts.”
Baldwin added that if the tax credits expire, 30,000 Wisconsinites will have their health care terminated entirely.
I call on my Republican colleagues, in particular. This is our moment to do it. I know so many of my Republican colleagues want to extend these tax credits. This is the time.
GOP leaders have said lawmakers can debate an extension of the funding in November or December, since the premium tax credits don’t officially expire until the first day of 2026. But Democrats argue there is an urgent need to act soon, saying insurers are filing their rates over the next few weeks and open enrollment begins Nov. 1.
In January, Baldwin introduced the Health Care Affordability Act — legislation that would make make this tax break permanent.
Rep. Tony Wied, R-8th District, said in a statement:
While House Republicans voted to keep the government open last week, Senator Baldwin and her fellow Democrats voted to shut the government down in a failed attempt to give healthcare back to illegal aliens. Instead of holding performative press conferences in Green Bay, Senator Baldwin should be in Washington fixing the mess she helped create. Wisconsinites deserve a Senator who puts their interests first.
A government shutdown is looming at the end of September. Republicans want the tax credits cut, while Democrats say they won’t budge on the bill if health care costs go up.
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