Opinion: Shutting government down over health care is preposterous

The Day – Tuesday, October 14, 2025
By U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney represents Connecticut’s 2nd District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Last Wednesday, I hosted a telephone town hall in eastern Connecticut with nearly 10,000 callers from Ledyard to Enfield. The second caller, “Kristine from Coventry,” who I have never met, described succinctly the problem for thousands of middle class and working families in our region if the Affordable Care Act premium subsidies, which have been on the books for the last four years, are not “continued” in the “continuing resolution” that is before Congress right now.

Kristine and her husband purchase their health insurance on the exchange. If the subsidies are omitted from the pending spending bill, as the Republican leadership in Congress are insisting, she calculated that their premium will jump to over $3,100 per month — $37,200 per year. She was very direct in her call, “that is not only unaffordable; it’s impossible for us.” Kristine was not exaggerating.

Connecticut’s insurance exchange has generated numerous real life customer examples of the pending cost explosion that will hit mailboxes on Oct. 20. A couple in their late 50s in Old Lyme, with an annual income of $120,000 will see their premiums increase by $27,300 per year. A 34-year-old in Clinton, with an annual income of $72,700 will see their premiums increase by $3,852 per year. A family of four in Waterford, with an annual income of $58,700 will see their premiums increase by $2,568 per year — over a 300% cost hike.

These stories abound all across Connecticut and the nation — and yes, even the state of Georgia, home to my colleague, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of the 14th District. Georgia has already sent out 2026 premium notices, and as the congresswoman described in full caps on social media, her two adult children’s premiums “are going to DOUBLE.”

To her credit, Rep. Greene accurately ascribed the spike to the expiration of the tax credits, which “not a single Republican in leadership talked to us about …” By that, she means the Republican leaders who whipped their caucus to vote for a continuing resolution on Sept. 19 that left the premium subsidies out of the bill.

Her experience in Georgia is just the prelude to the storm. In order for plan selection to be made by 24 million Americans who presently use the exchange in time for Jan. 1, enrollment starts on Nov. 1, 2025. Health care sticker shock will descend on mailboxes in all states — ironically most heavily on states that President Trump carried, such as Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Utah, to name a few.

The tight window to prevent this fiasco dictates that President Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune wake up and listen to their own constituents and craft a true “continuing resolution” that continues the existing premiums so that Kristine in Coventry and Congresswoman Greene’s two kids don’t end up in the ranks of the uninsured.

And oh, by the way, despite claims from the White House and Republican leaders in Congress that this is a fight over health care for “illegal immigrants,” it is impossible for undocumented immigrants to enroll in ACA exchanges. Healthcare.gov — and its Connecticut equivalent Access Health CT — automatically rejects those without legal immigration status and have since the initial implementation of the ACA.

Let’s stop the falsehoods, convene the U.S. House and do the job that our constituents from the Second District of Connecticut and the 14th District of Georgia sent us to Washington to perform.

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