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DeGette, health leaders call on Congress to renew insurance premium tax credits [1]

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Date: 2025-08-07

Chelsey Baker-Hauck has relied on Colorado’s marketplace for health insurance coverage for the last decade while running her own business.

She caught COVID-19 at the start of 2020, and “never got well,” she said.

“The infection damaged my heart, and I developed an autoimmune disease that attacks my nervous system,” Baker-Hauck said. “I’m now permanently disabled, and for more than a year, I fought to get my insurance carrier to cover the treatment that would save my life.”

That treatment entails two full days at an infusion center receiving medication through a port in her chest every two weeks. It costs $8,600 per dose, which adds up to $412,000 per year.

“This treatment is saving my life, and it makes it possible for me to live life. But health insurance coverage is imperative,” Baker-Hauck said. “My life and my ability to continue working and contributing to my community depends on access to insurance.”

At a press conference Thursday at the HCA HealthONE Rose hospital in Denver, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette and Colorado health care experts warned that Coloradans will have higher health insurance premium costs without congressional renewal of the enhanced premium tax credits implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.

DeGette, a Denver Democrat, said the federal tax break and spending cut bill recently passed by congressional Republicans and signed into law by President Donald Trump will lead to an average 28% increase in health insurance premiums for Coloradans. She said it could grow to a 38% increase in Western parts of the state.

DeGette cited an analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that found that 16 million Americans will lose access to health care because of Medicaid cuts and the expiration of the tax credits, which benefits marketplace enrollees under the Affordable Care Act. The credits will expire at the end of the year and will affect 321,000 Coloradans, she said.

“Those are not people who are able-bodied workers who are just sitting at home as the Republican Party claims,” DeGette said. “These are Americans who can’t navigate the red tape.”

The enhanced tax credits were initially set to expire in 2022, but Congress extended and expanded them with the Inflation Reduction Act. According to KFF, insurance providers have cited the expiration of the tax credits as a reason for premium increases.

Adam Fox, deputy director of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, said the “vast majority” of premium increases can be attributed to the Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill,” which he said will lead to “ugly consequences for Coloradans.” He said the expiration of the tax credits “throws the health insurance market into chaos.”

“The failure to extend the enhanced premium tax credits in (the Republican budget bill) and the other changes that are being made to the Affordable Care Act are unconscionable,” Fox said. “ Republicans may not have gone for fully repealing the ACA, but they are doing everything they can to strangle it, and they are driving up costs for millions of Americans.”

Nina Schwartz, chief policy and external affairs officer for Connect for Health Colorado, the state’s insurance marketplace, said 80% of enrollees receive financial assistance through the cut tax credits. She said this has made health coverage more accessible for people across the state.

Representatives from Colorado hospital systems noted at Thursday’s press conference that when people lose their health insurance coverage, they start to use emergency rooms as their primary care.

“That is care that becomes more expensive and ultimately is funneled through the emergency department, because you are ultimately not getting care in the right time at the right place at the most costly intervention,” said Megan Axelrod, vice president of the Colorado Hospital Association.

In this quarter, Axelrod said Colorado hospitals have already $141 million on charity care, which she said is more than a 250% increase from the same time in 2019.

Laura-Elena Porras, health policy and coverage program director at Doctors Care, a safety net community health center in Littleton, said most of the patients her clinic works with earn under $35,000 a year for a single person and under $65,000 for a family of three. She said the enhanced premium tax credits “have made coverage possible for these families.”

“With the expiration of these subsidies and no extension in the (Republican budget bill), we’re bracing for major disruptions in our program,” Porras said. “We expect higher premiums, more confusion, and fewer people getting covered.”

Democrats in the Colorado Legislature wrote to all members of Colorado’s federal delegation Thursday urging them to push for renewal of the enhanced premium tax credits.

“Failure to extend enhanced premium tax credits will result in harmful impacts to your constituents, including increased costs and loss of coverage,” the letter says. “We urge you to take immediate action to extend enhanced premium tax credits to ensure Coloradans can continue to access the quality healthcare coverage that they deserve.”

Baker-Hauck said she anticipates her health care costs will consume more than 42% of her income next year. She said her family already can’t afford health care, as they have emptied their savings, retirement funds, and acquired $10,000 in medical debt. Her husband declined cancer treatment last year “because we couldn’t afford to pay his deductible too.”

“What do I cut when there’s nothing left to cut? If I cut insurance, I die. It’s that simple,” Baker-Hauck said. “How can any middle-class American be expected to bear this kind of financial burden?”

America’s health care system “is already unworkable,” and it’s only going to get worse, Baker-Hauck said. She said Congress should work to make health care more affordable and accessible, not less.

“Republicans in Congress have taken an imperfect healthcare system, and they broke it entirely,” Baker-Hauck said.

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[1] Url: https://coloradonewsline.com/2025/08/07/degette-health-leaders-call-on-congress-to-renew-insurance-premium-tax-credits/

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