DENVER — With Congress on its summer recess, some lawmakers, including those in Colorado, are hearing from people who are concerned about rising health care costs, including those who buy their health insurance on the individual marketplace.
Federal tax credits that help lower monthly premiums will expire at the end of the year. Enrollees and healthcare advocates are urging Congress to extend the tax credits, warning that failure to do so will lead to skyrocketing costs for more than 300,000 Coloradans.
Denver7 is also listening to community members about their concerns and working to find out how much healthcare premiums could increase.
“I wake up every day thinking about it. I go to sleep every day thinking about it," Chelsey Baker-Hauck told Denver7. “It's difficult for me to walk, talk, eat, breathe, basically do all the functions of living."
Baker-Hauck could easily be talking about the daily struggles of living with long COVID and a neurologic condition that makes everyday tasks difficult. Instead, she’s talking about the constant anxiety she has over whether she'll continue to be able to afford health insurance.
"Health insurance makes the treatments possible for me to have more of those good days than bad,” said Baker-Hauck.
Baker-Hauck is among the roughly 300,000 other Coloradans who buy health insurance on the individual marketplace. Federal tax credits that help lower the monthly costs for them will expire at the end of the year.
The Colorado Division of Insurance (DOI) says premiums will increase by an average of 28%. Coloradans who live on the Western Slope will see an average increase of 38%.
A 60-year-old enrollee who lives in Denver could pay an extra $2,869 per year, according to DOI, while a 60-year-old enrollee who lives on the Western Slope could pay an extra $5,186 per year.
"This will put health insurance beyond the reach of many Coloradans, and lead more people to delay and forgo care,” said Adam Fox, deputy director of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative.
Healthcare advocates say Congress's failure to extend the tax credits when it passed President Donald Trump’s "big, beautiful bill" will cause unnecessary harm.
“This shift will hit hardest for those already facing barriers: immigrant families, low-income workers, and communities of color,” said Laura-Elena Porras, the health policy and coverage program director for Doctors Care.
The tax credits will expire on Dec. 31.
U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, who represents Colorado’s 1st Congressional District, is urging her colleagues, in particular Republicans, to act.
“When Congress comes back in September, we need to extend the tax relief that was already in place,” said DeGette. “This is not the abstract. This is real life for millions of Americans.”
Denver7 asked all four of Colorado’s Republican congressional members where they stand on extending the tax credits, which were passed under former President Joe Biden. U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who represents Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, was the first to respond.
"This is another example of the runaway spending fueled by the Biden Administration that our nation simply cannot afford,” Boebert said in a statement. “I'm working with President Trump and House Republicans to find creative ways to lower the cost of health care and drug prices for Coloradans, but continuing to subsidize these unpaid-for credits will only further bankrupt our country."
While these are federal tax credits, Colorado Governor Jared Polis has asked state lawmakers to look at what they might be able to do during the upcoming special legislative session to cushion the impact.
“We want to give the legislature another chance on health insurance premiums in the exchange,” Polis said. “They were unable to act in the general session, but that was before we knew how bad the damage was.”
Baker-Hauck said she's worried about the impact higher costs will have on her family. She is worried about losing her home.
"I mean, essentially we don't really have much left to cut in our budget," she said. "We've already emptied our savings. We've already emptied my husband's retirement fund. We're really out of options at this point."
She's also tired of the political bickering.
"It astounds me that healthcare is a partisan issue. It should not be a partisan issue,” Baker-Hauck said. “I'm an independent. I don't care who people vote for. We all get sick eventually, right? At some point in our lives, we're all gonna get sick. Why we're taking healthcare away from people at a time when more people need it than ever, coming out of this pandemic, it boggles my mind.”
