Affordable Care Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, there are life experiences which you carry for the rest of your life because they are so meaningful and change the course of your life.

I will never forget what it was like to be the father of our new baby when she had a serious medical condition and I had no health insurance. I never felt more helpless than I did at that moment. It is a terrible feeling I wouldn't wish on anybody. That experience comes to mind when I think about healthcare. I thought about it when we passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010 and again when we expanded the ACA premier tax credit in 2021 and 2022, making insurance more affordable for tens of millions of Americans. We set a record.

There were more Americans covered by health insurance as a result of those actions than ever in our history. Unfortunately, my Republican colleagues are preparing to subject millions of Americans to the stress-filled sleepless nights as part of heading up a family when you have no health insurance.

At the end of this year, the ACA's enhanced premium tax credits will expire. If they are not renewed, insurance premiums will spike across the country for the people least likely to be able to pay, and millions and millions of Americans will lose their healthcare.

These tax credits subsidize the price of healthcare for lower and middle-income families, ensuring that premiums for marketplace health plans never exceed 8.5 percent of the families' income. This cap on premiums makes healthcare affordable for millions of Americans. Some only have to pay as little as $10 a month for coverage; others pay almost nothing.

Since the creation of these enhanced tax credits, the number of Americans enrolled in ACA plans has almost doubled, from 11.4 million in 2020 to 24.3 million in 2024. These credits are especially important for people living in small towns, as they often have few options and higher insurance premiums. The expiration of these tax credits as part of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill will devastate families of limited means and threaten the existence of hospitals all across the country, including in my State of Illinois. The people who run these hospitals in small towns, which are absolutely critical for healthcare, for the local economy, are bracing for the Medicaid cuts that are coming, again as part of the Republican Big Beautiful Bill.

If Republicans allow these tax credits to expire, insurance premiums are going to skyrocket by more than 75 percent for most marketplace plans. In Illinois, a family of four making $126,000 can see their annual premiums increase by $7,500. A couple making $82,000 can see more than a $17,000 increase. These price increases can be too much to bear for many families who are already dealing with some of the impacts of the tariff policies.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 4 million people will become uninsured because of the ACA credit expiration. That is 4 million people who won't know if they will be able to afford a hospital bill if their child has an injury; 4 million people who might have to forego a doctor's visit because they can't afford it. Millions of people might be forced to put off a dentist visit because they lost their healthcare.

The expiration of these health insurance subsidies will be devastating for families across America in red States and blue States alike, and it will deal yet another blow to the American public who were promised by this President that he will bring down their cost of living.

I had two of my constituents contact me about this issue, Kristin from Rochester, IL, just outside Springfield said:

As a previously very healthy person recently diagnosed with a long-term degenerative disease, health care is at the top of my mind.

Without health insurance, one of my multiple medications would cost $7500. I will likely be on that or something similar for the rest of my life.

I'm a freelance writer--

She writes-- so I depend on the ACA marketplace for insurance. Without those subsidies, I would be unable to cover the cost of my care.

And Zachary from Highland, IL, in Madison County near St. Louis writes:

Please do everything you can to protect the Affordable Care Act. It has been a lifesaver for my family.

We have four children and starting our own business is not easy when factoring in healthcare costs.

It would ruin us if we lost the benefits from the [Affordable Care Act]. It would ruin us economically and physically if we lost these big beautiful benefits from the ACA.

Real people, real life, real problems, brought on by the passage of the big beautiful budget bill of Donald Trump.

When these credits for health insurance hit, we are going to hear about it all over the United States, and it is just a matter of days before they are announced. Now it is time to do something meaningful.

Let us come together on a bipartisan basis and say that this was a serious mistake. Families of limited and modest means need a helping hand for health insurance. Let's give them the peace of mind to know that the most expensive medical bills will be covered.

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