Jennifer McClellan: The government shutdown is a crisis of the GOP's making

Mama J's Kitchen co-owner Lester Johnson is one of 400,000 Virginians who purchase health insurance through the Virginia Insurance Marketplace. As he prepared to renew his plan when open enrollment starts on Nov. 1, Lester checked his premium bill. Without the tax credit he receives to help lower his insurance premium, the cost of his insurance plan will double.

That tax credit expires at the end of the year. Rather than extend it, Republicans shut down the federal government.

Under the Affordable Care Act, health care exchanges like the Virginia Insurance Marketplace provide health insurance to people like Lester, who earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid but do not have employer-provided health insurance to get covered. The ACA established tax credits to help lower insurance premiums for households with an annual income between 100% to 400% of the federal poverty level. Currently, those levels are between $15,650 and $62,600 for a single-individual household and between $32,150 and $128,600 for a family of four.

In 2021, as health care costs rose during the pandemic, Congress expanded the eligibility and amount of the credit for two years. In 2022, Congress eliminated the maximum income limit and increased credit amounts through the end of 2025. Yet despite widespread popular support, congressional Republicans refuse to extend the tax credits.

What does that mean for the approximately 350,000 Virginians who benefit from ACA premium tax credits?

KFF estimates insurance premiums could rise as much as 114%.

A family of four making $129,800 would pay $4,675 more in annual insurance premiums.

A family of four making $64,000 a year would pay $2,571 more.

A 60-year-old couple making $82,800 a year would pay $11,968 more.

Between 60,000 and 100,000 Virginians could cancel health insurance coverage altogether because they just cannot afford it.

This will exacerbate a crisis of Republicans' making from their Big Ugly Law's draconian Medicaid cuts, which will force health care providers to close, millions of Americans to lose their health insurance and drastically increase premiums for the rest of us amid an already intensifying affordability crisis.

Even as Democrats have continually sounded the alarm on how these cuts will devastate our communities, Republicans have taken no substantive steps in Washington to address the health care crisis they created. Instead, Speaker Mike Johnson has not scheduled votes in the House on anything since Sept.19, even as 12 appropriations bills, a farm bill, the National Defense Authorization Act and more languish on the Hill.

As we reach the two-week mark of the government shutdown, more Americans like Lester are opening their 2026 premium notices to determine if they can afford to remain covered. Over 200,000 people who already left the federal civilian workforce through DOGE purges face uncertainty about their own health insurance options. Hundreds of thousands of remaining federal employees wonder if they will see their next paycheck as President Donald Trump threatens to ignore the law he signed guaranteeing back pay.

The American people overwhelmingly want to get the health care they need without going bankrupt. I stand with congressional Democrats ready to pass a budget that provides that peace of mind. The time to act is now. Will Republicans join us? Time will tell.