Starting next year, my constituent, Tammy of Woodhull, Illinois, will see her health insurance premiums increase by nearly $600 per month.
Ingrid from Springfield is a disabled retiree currently battling cancer. She now faces a stark choice: pay $1,400 a month in premiums and copays and cut back on other essentials, or have no health care coverage at all.
And Melanie from Elmhurst is a small business owner who relies on the Affordable Care Act for cover. She says the out-of-pocket costs for the same plan next year will be “unaffordable, plain and simple.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and President Donald Trump. (AP Photos/Mariam Zuhaib/Alex Brandon)
The challenge that Tammy, Ingrid and Melanie face is the same one that Americans in this country – in both blue and red states – face. Why? I’ll tell you.
Is Congress holding back millions to save $4,600 on cheaper health insurance?
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Joe Biden, with the support of a Democratic Congress, signed the American Rescue Plan into law, which, among several provisions, provided enhanced ACA premium tax credits. These tax credits opened the door for millions of hardworking Americans to enroll in affordable health insurance.
But these tax credits expire at the end of this year. And when they do, more than 20 million people will see their premiums rise – in some cases doubling, tripling and even quadrupling. Another four million Americans will lose their coverage outright.
Republicans in Congress don’t seem to care that the top 10 states that could see the highest premium increases are red states. What matters to my Republican colleagues is loyalty to the president.
So the solution is simple: expand these tax credits and protect health care for millions of Americans. But unfortunately, Republicans – at President Donald Trump’s direction – have refused to negotiate. And they are working on this. So much so that 23 days ago they decided to shut down the government instead of tackling this crisis.
Democrats cheer ‘no kings’ protests, but let the shutdown devastate families
For nearly two weeks, the USDA cut off financial aid to Illinois soybean farmers, who have been struggling as Trump’s Chinese tariffs closed their biggest market in months.. Air traffic control and TSA agents are stretched to their limits by staff shortages. And families across the country are seeing their SNAP benefits suspended thanks to a shortage of federal funding. On November 1, this will be a reality for nearly 2 million Illinois residents who rely on SNAP.
Let me repeat: This is a crisis that they – President Trump and Republicans in Congress – have created.
In July, President Trump signed his so-called “big, beautiful bill” into law on a party-line vote, cutting $1 trillion from programs like Medicaid. Now 10 million people will lose their health care coverage and 300 rural hospitals are threatened with closure. This, on top of those who stand to lose because of these expiring ACA credits, presents a five-alarm fire for working people in this country.
President Donald Trump signs sweeping spending and tax legislation known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act at the White House in Washington, DC, on July 4, 2025. (Reuters/Ken Cedeno)
Republicans are fine with pumping up the national debt to permanently expand Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy, but even draw the line at temporarily extending the ACA credits so that hardworking Americans living paycheck to paycheck can access the care they need.
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Democrats are fighting to protect health care for all Americans – no matter where they live or how they vote. That’s why we sat at the table months before the government’s funding deadline, ready to hammer out a bipartisan package.
Instead, Republicans have pushed us into a shutdown. More than ever, Democrats remain willing to engage in serious negotiations. But we don’t yet have a serious partner in that effort.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune holds a copy of a continuing resolution bill as he speaks alongside Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson during a press conference in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol Building on October 3, 2025 in Washington, DC (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has declined to meet with Democrats. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has kept the House out of session and out of town. And when President Trump isn’t posting memes mocking Democrats’ attempts to end this shutdown, he’s returned to his usual antics: distracting, blaming, and scapegoating.
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I remember a time in the United States Senate when we were working on a bipartisan basis across the aisle.
It’s time for Chairman Johnson to end the House of Representatives’ extended vacation and return its members to Washington so they can do the job they were elected to do. Now is the time for Republicans to sit down with Democrats and negotiate a solution to this problem.
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