Ahead of ACA open enrollment beginning tomorrow, Georgians who rely on the critical program for their affordable health care joined Protect Our Care this week to discuss the impact of losing critical tax credits as Republicans in Congress like Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins have not returned to work in over 40 days to reopen the government.
While Carter and Collins can’t even bother to show up to work, their constituents face potential average ACA premium increases of 296% and 345%, respectively, for an average 60-year-old couple.
95% of the Georgians who get their insurance on the ACA Marketplace rely on the tax credits to afford their plans.
See for yourself:
“We are working families. We pay our taxes. We do everything right. We just want to keep ourselves healthy and our families healthy, and now we are looking down the barrel at much higher costs through no fault of our own”, said Liz Ernst, Georgia State Director of Protect Our Care.
“The Affordable Care Act is literally a lifeline for me. I would not be able to afford individual coverage but with the ACA I am able to afford health insurance,” said Angella Hoomes, a Georgian on ACA. “This is literally life and death for me to have access to medical coverage.”
“Thanks to this Republican Congress, letting the tax credits expire, I’m really not going to be able to afford health insurance,” said Jason Steele, a Georgian on ACA. “I’m on a tight budget already, I’ve got so much every month I can pay, adding three, four, five hundred dollars a month is just not going to work.”