Stories From Home: the Human Cost of Expiring Healthcare Tax Credits
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise today to anchor this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour.
Sometimes the voices of people and businesses impacted by congressional action or inaction get lost in the back-and-forth of the floor and the media.
For months, Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have focused on amplifying the stories of our constituents, and tonight we do the same, amplifying the stories of people whether they are small business owners, they are employees, they are self-employed, farmers, or others, who could find themselves unable to afford healthcare without an extension of the enhanced premium tax credit.
We know that there is a healthcare crisis looming in this country. We know that every American is one illness or accident away from economic devastation. That is the point of health insurance, to make sure that when they need care, they can access it without going bankrupt.
While the healthcare system isn't perfect, the point of the Affordable Care Act was to ensure more people had access to insurance through Medicaid expansion, through employer provided healthcare, and through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. It is called Marketplace Virginia in my State.
The more people have insurance, the more we know when they need care they can get it and not go bankrupt. More importantly, they can get primary care and preventative care so that when they get sick--because they will--they don't show up in the hospital when it is too late or more expensive to treat. Also, when more people show up in those hospitals uninsured, they will get care, and the cost of that care goes to everybody else.
Tonight, Mr. Speaker, you will hear stories of people who purchased their insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchange who, because of the enhanced premium tax credits, can actually afford their premiums. Without those tax credits, many of them--we have heard time and time again--will be forced to choose: Do I buy that healthcare plan, or do I feed my family?
Do I pay for that healthcare plan, or do I pay my mortgage or my rent?
Do I buy that healthcare plan, or do I pay my utility bills?
For too many Americans, the cost of everything is too high. Unfortunately, many are being forced to forgo health insurance and gamble and hope that they won't get sick. They will, and we will all pay the price for it.
Sewell).
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. McCLELLAN. Brown).
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. McCLELLAN. Clarke).
Ms. CLARKE of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia for anchoring us in the Congressional Black Caucus' Special Order hour, ``Stories from Home: The human costs of expiring healthcare tax credits.''
Tonight, we have already heard from my colleagues, and we speak for everyday Americans, families, seniors, young adults, and workers who now face the devastating reality that their healthcare premiums are about to double--in some cases, triple and quadruple--when critical tax credits expire at year's end.
In New York's Ninth Congressional District, this crisis is not theoretical. It is happening to the single mother in Flatbush, Brooklyn, who finally had been able to afford her son's asthma medication. It is happening to the retired home health aide in Brownsville stretching every dollar just to stay covered.
It is happening to the young entrepreneur in Crown Heights who took a chance on starting a business because these credits made health insurance reachable and reliable.
For years, these tax credits which were extended during the pandemic have been a stabilizing force for families across Brooklyn, New York. They helped to protect our communities, kept our small businesses afloat, and ensured that our neighbors could see a doctor without sacrificing their rent payments, groceries, or the lifesaving medications that many, many rely on.
Yet, because of a prolonged and entirely avoidable Trump-Republican government shutdown and because Republicans refused to negotiate, the expiration of these credits will hit working families the hardest. In a city where the cost of living is already sky high, premium spikes will push many in New York's Ninth District to the brink of losing coverage altogether.
House Democrats stood united for more than 40 days to prevent this outcome. We fought to shield families from exactly this kind of financial ruin and healthcare shock. Once again, our Republican colleagues across the aisle chose politics over people, and Brooklyn, New York, like other districts across the Nation, will feel that pain most acutely.
Mr. Speaker, tonight, the Congressional Black Caucus has done what it has always done: We center the people. We will bring forward the stories from home, stories from New York's Ninth District and every district represented by the CBC. We will make sure that this Chamber hears their names, sees and feels their struggle, and understands the real-world consequences of inaction, because this is not just a policy.
This is about whether families in Brooklyn, New York, can afford their medications; whether seniors can age with dignity; whether our healthcare infrastructure can withstand the shock of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, using the emergency room as primary care; and whether our children can grow up healthy and secure.
The CBC is leading the fight for the extension of these critical tax credits and for the health, well-being, and humanity of every person who we represent.
Mr. Speaker, I hope that these stories this evening drive it home.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. McCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, Speaker Johnson has called the Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits a boondoggle, but let me tell you what those tax credits have meant for millions of Americans.
Over 80 percent of the tax credit goes to help working people in States that President Trump won. Since they were introduced, more than half of the growth in national enrollment has come from Texas, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina.
Who are these folks? They are not the 29-year-old sitting in his mother's basement playing video games. They are restaurateurs, beauticians, landscapers, mediators, chiropractors, funeral directors, farmers, ranchers, freelancers, contractors, and gig workers, and now they are stuck.
As open enrollment began and they opened their mail, they found that their premiums, in some cases, doubled; in some cases, tripled. I heard from a local restaurateur in my district, Lester Johnson. He and his wife own Mama J's, a beloved restaurant in the Jackson Ward neighborhood of Richmond, which was once known as the Harlem of the South.
The Johnsons rely on ObamaCare, or the Affordable Care Act, for themselves and their 8-year-old daughter. They pay $700 a month, and Lester has estimated that, if the subsidies expire, his bill will go up to $1,400 a month. He has about 40 employees, and they would see premium hikes, as well. Lester says: It is a lot of money for people. I think everyone is feeling the anxiety.
He is worried about his family and the families of those 40 employees.
I heard from Bron Hansboro, the owner of The Flower Guy Bron, a Richmond small business:
We have been looking at this coming down the pike for a few months, and I have had to be proactive, and I have had to consider what it looks like for my business if these credits are removed, and what it looks like is taking increased risk and finding money that doesn't exist to make sure that we can supplement and offset the cost of my sole employee's expenses.
His sole employee is Ronni Moss, who said: I found fulfillment in my part-time work as a floral and event designer with Bron. In 2021, I left my corporate job for full-time employment. It was an important move for me to work in a dream career while contributing to the success of this small business. At reasonable rates, I have purchased health insurance on the marketplace, and the benefits that they have offered at my corporate job while they allowed me to give birth to my handsome son, it is the marketplace that has proved more valuable to me. Now, with the increased insurance on top of the increase in groceries and other living expenses, I am not sure how my family is going to manage it.
We have heard from farmers across the district who are already struggling, particularly soy farmers. In my district in Virginia, we have some of the largest number of soy farmers in the Commonwealth. They are already struggling under the tariffs and as a result they can't sell their crops.
One of my farmers said to me: Basically, unless you are a beef cattle farmer, you are already a volunteer right now, and now we have to figure out not only how we feed our families but how we pay for our health insurance because we purchase under the marketplace.
Why is it so important that people are insured? I was in the Virginia Legislature when we expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The reason we did it is because we had rural hospitals that were about to close. We had so many people who were not getting preventative care, and it was leading an already bad maternal health crisis to get worse. It was leading an already bad infant mortality crisis to get worse. It was leading a preterm birth crisis to get worse.
By getting people connected to a medical home, paid for by insurance--in that case, Medicaid, or later when we created a State- based exchange--through the exchange, they could get preventative screenings that could identify cancer while it was still treatable. Pregnant women would be healthy when they got pregnant and not have to deal with hypertension and other chronic diseases that lead to a high maternal mortality rate.
We saw health outcomes improve. We saw hospitals, which were on the verge of closing because of the high number of uninsured, overcome that risk.
During the summer recess, I visited a dental clinic in far southwest Virginia in Abingdon. Before that dental clinic opened, communities in southwest Virginia waited a full year for a dental clinic that was part of a larger healthcare clinic to come where they could get basic dental care, such as dentures and other types of dental care.
When this clinic opened, 80 percent of their patients are Medicaid recipients. Twenty percent are uninsured.
Now thanks to the pending Medicaid cuts, they don't know what they are going to do. They are worried about the uninsured in that community who are covered by Medicaid and now that community is also worried about those that are insured through the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Speaker, because without your health insurance, you don't know what you are going to do when, in the blink of an eye, your child is injured.
I know that fear. When my son was about 3 years old, in the blink of an eye, he burned his hand. I happened to be in a rural area as part of a conference. We went to the local hospital. They didn't have a burn clinic. This was on a Saturday. They said you can drive back to Richmond and on Wednesday there is a burn clinic and they can take your son, or we can see if we can get him admitted to UVA Hospital or VCU Hospital, both of which were hours away, but we can see if he can get admitted right now. I said: We are going to see if he can get admitted right now.
Between the ambulance ride, a week in the hospital, and the treatment, because I had employer-provided healthcare, I still had to pay $1,000 out of pocket. The total bill was $15,000. This was 12 years ago. Think about what that bill would be today.
I was fortunate. Because I had employer-provided health insurance, I only had to pay $1,000, but I think about how many people don't have that and Medicaid or the Affordable Care Act is their only option.
Right now they are worried about whether that option is going to be available. What does that mean for the people that I represent? In Virginia, about 350,000 people benefit from the enhanced premium tax credits.
For a family of four that earn just under $130,000 a year, they will see their premium go up 43 percent, to $4,675.
For a family of four who earn $64,000 a year, their premium will go up 20 percent, $2,571 more that they have to pay for insurance. For a 60-year-old couple earning $82,000 a year, they will see their premium go up 174 percent. Their premium will go up $11,968.
Most of the families I talk to don't know where they are going to find that money. They don't know if they are going to be able to pay that premium. They do know one thing, guaranteed, they are going to need healthcare. They don't know if they are going to be able to pay for it. We will continue to raise these stories because too many people are depending on Congress to act. Their lives literally depend on it.
Hopefully before December 31, we will find the political will to extend these tax credits. If we don't, we better come up with a solution to ensure that Americans all across this country can access the care they need when they need it. If we don't, how are we going to look them in the eye and say we served their needs?
I worry about that. I worry about that mother who wakes up one morning, bleeding, 9 weeks away from her due date who goes to the hospital and isn't sure how she is going to pay that bill, if she makes it.
I worry about that mother whose child has to stay in the NICU for 6 weeks who doesn't know how she is going to pay that bill. I worry about that mother who has to figure out how am I going to get my child the developmental care that she needs to ensure she meets her milestones because all that costs money that she probably doesn't have, and that mother could have been me.
I was fortunate that I had insurance, and while I worried about whether my daughter or I would make it, I didn't have to worry about how I would pay for it. There are too many Americans who go to bed at night wondering, is that lingering cough something that I need to go to a doctor for today? Can I afford it, or do I wait until I can't breathe and I am in the emergency room?
That is what is at stake. It is not a game about will Democrats or Republicans win. It is a question about whether the American people can get the care they need when they need it.
The Congressional Black Caucus will stand up every single day and fight not just for our constituents but for every single American whether you live in an urban core, a rural holler, a suburban cul-de- sac, no matter where you were born, although we know--let me clarify that if you are not a citizen, you are not eligible for the ACA. Let's just put that to bed for a minute.
No matter where you were born, where you live, the color of your skin, how you worship, you can get the care you need when you need it and know you won't go bankrupt.
That is all people are asking for right now, and we are going to fight to make sure that every single American can go to bed at night not having to worry about the answer to that question.
Mr. Speaker, I thank you for your attention tonight. I ask you to come together to find a solution to this crisis.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source