McClellan Hosts Roundtable on Rising Affordable Care Act Premiums at the Daily Planet, a Richmond Community Health Center

Richmond, Va.- In case you missed it: Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (VA-04) and Protect Our Care Virginiahosted a roundtable on Tuesday sounding the alarm on how the expiration of enhanced Premium Tax Credits (EPTC) under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) at the end of this year will drive up health care costs for Virginians and impact our entire health care system.

Congresswoman McClellan, health care providers and impacted Virginians discussed this looming health care crisis, how we got here and what advocates can do to fight back.

Watch the event HERE

View photos from the event HERE.

With open enrollment for the Virginia Marketplace beginning Nov. 1, time is of the essence. 106,000 Virginians are expected to drop out of the Virginia Marketplaceif these tax credits expire, which will raise premiums for the remaining pool and put further strain on free clinics and community health centers.

"We are in the midst of a government shutdown because Republicans would rather shut down the government than address a health care crisis of their making," said Congresswoman McClellan. "Republicans say, 'well, we can wait. We don't have to address that right now,' but open enrollment starts November 1. People are already starting to get their notices of what their health care premiums are going to be. We know that in some cases, based on analysis from KFF, those premiums could jump as much as 114%. And when you can't afford health insurance in the midst of an affordability crisis … a lot of people are going to have to make very tough decisions between paying that premium or paying the rest of your bills and feeding your families."

"The end of enhanced Premium Tax Credits will lead to thousands of families losing access to subsidies that made coverage more affordable," said TCI Policy Director Freddy Mejia. "This will lead to countless conversations and tough decisions over dinner tables across Virginia about whether to pay for health care or to use that money for other essentials that are going up in price. There are estimates that over 100,000 people in Virginia are expected to lose ACA Marketplace coverage due to the end of enhanced credits, and about 50,000 of those will remain uninsured. And that's just at the top of this year. To replicate these subsidies at the state level would cost nearly $230 million, and that's at a time when every state budget, including Virginia's, is feeling the pain from policy choices in the Republican-led HR1 bill that was passed in July."

"Breast cancer screenings, colon cancer screenings, cervical cancer screenings drop off when people are uninsured," said Dr. Patricia Cook, Chief Medical Officer at Daily Planet. And that means they present with those cancers at later stages that are harder to treat, more expensive to treat, and devastating. Chronic disease management does''t happen. Blood pressures, blood sugars, viral loads all increase. Preventable things like heart attack, strokes, opportunistic infections land people in the hospital. By taking away ACA credits and by limiting people's access to care, we are causing them to become uninsured, fall prey to their illnesses, and fall out of the workforce. And putting families … one accident away from financial catastrophe."

"As we have been looking at this coming down the pipe for a few months, I've had to be proactive, and have had to consider what this looks like for my business if these credits are removed, and what it looks like is taking an increased risk and finding money that does not exist to make sure that we can supplement and offset the cost of my sole employee's expenses," said Bron Hansboro, owner of The Flower Guy Bron, a Richmond small business.

"I found fulfillment in my part-time work as a floral and event designer with Bron," said Ronni Moss of Richmond, an employee of The Flower Guy Bron. "In 2021, I left my corporate job for full-time employment. That was an important move for me, again, to work in my dream career while contributing to the success of this small business without sacrificing my personal well-being. At reasonable rates, I have purchased health insurance on the Marketplace. Less than two years after leaving my corporate job, and the benefits that they offered, I gave birth to my handsome son who's here today. Honestly, the Virginia Marketplace proved more valuable to me than I initially thought. Considering the increase of insurance with groceries and other living expenses, I'm not sure how families like mine will manage [without the tax credits]."

"So if we now talk about the loss of people dropping out of the ACA when you already have free clinics at their max, you're talking about a whole access issue that's tied on to clinics that are already nearly underwater in some cases," said Karen Legato, Executive Director of Health Brigade. "I've been out here speaking about this for a while. I feel like there's been a tremendous assault on the safety net, public health system initially. Now you're taking the next step to pull apart the ACA, and then comes the Medicaid. At what point are we going to begin to see diseases in the street, people not having places to go for care at all, more hospital systems closing down?"

"What we're seeing right now is a perfect storm of health care cuts that compound one another - reductions in Medicaid, the expiration of key tax credits, the defunding of Planned Parenthood, and attacks on the Title X family-planning program," said Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia Executive Director Jamie Lockhart. "Each of these actions alone would harm patients, but together they represent an unprecedented attack on our public-health infrastructure. By defunding Planned Parenthood from Medicaid, they are trying to block 1.1 million patients from using their insurance for birth control, for STI testing, cancer screenings and wellness visits, and then cuts to the Title X program mean fewer clinics, longer waits and more confusion for patients who depend on these services."