Nearly 22 million Americans are able to afford health care because of premium tax credits that are available through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace.
However, those tax credits are going to expire on Dec. 31, 2025, thanks to the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.” This new law is a tax giveaway passed by yes-men in Congress for billionaires and rich corporations at the expense of working families.
While these ACA premium tax credits had been extended in past years, no extensions were included in the new law.
That means almost 4.2 million working families will be forced to drop coverage or will become uninsured, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
And families across the country will face, on average, a 75% increase in health insurance premiums, with some households seeing their premiums double — or more.
If health care premiums spike, many will be forced to drop coverage altogether because they cannot afford it. That will drive up uncompensated care and increase costs throughout the entire health system.
That includes families that do not use the ACA. They could see their premiums increase by hundreds of dollars.
Meanwhile, if premium tax credits expire, we could see 130,000 health care jobs disappear — including AFSCME members’ jobs.
The damage that the Big Beautiful Bill is inflicting on Americans’ health care goes even further.
Thanks to the law’s extreme cuts to Medicaid, hospitals that serve our communities’ most vulnerable people — disproportionate share hospitals — will lose billions of dollars in funding.
These hospitals provide critical services that many other hospitals cannot: trauma and burn care, maternal and child health, high-risk neonatal units, and much more.
If these hospitals close, that will lead to vulnerable patients losing access to care. And front-line AFSCME members who work in them would face layoffs, reduced hours, and unsafe staffing levels.
This all comes as working families are facing a cost-of-living crisis.
If you agree that Congress should be making health care more affordable — not less — call your member of Congress today. Tell them to lower health care costs for working families.