| “Punishing us.”
“Cut us at the knees.”
“[Pulling] the rug out from under me.”
“Absolutely abandoned.”
“Makes me want to throw up.”
That’s what small business owners across Alaska are saying because health care premiums are set to skyrocket thanks to Nick Begich and House Republicans.
About 25,000 Alaskans rely on the ACA marketplace for health care – including hardworking small business owners and job creators like Brie Loidolt, who is considering shutting down her business because she simply can’t afford the health care crisis that Begich created.
Yet Begich refuses to lift a finger, and hasn’t even bothered to hold an in-person town hall since his disastrous “yes” vote.
Read the devastating coverage for yourself:
Anchorage Daily News: ‘Punishing us’: Alaska small-business owners consider next steps amid steep rises in health care costs
- Expiration of the enhanced [Affordable Care Act] premium tax credits could cripple small businesses in Alaska…as they face premiums that in some cases will triple year over year, eating away at their ability to keep their businesses afloat.
- “We’re working tooth and nail every day to make our way…” said Brie Loidolt, who owns a bookkeeping business in Anchorage and is facing an increase of hundreds of dollars per month in her premium costs.
- Congress is “just punishing us for being small-business owners,” said Loidolt, who has weighed closing her business in response to the rise in health insurance costs.
- Alaska’s U.S. Rep. Nick Begich has not spoken in favor of [Affordable Care Act tax credit] extension or responded to multiple interview requests on the subject.
- “I need my government, specifically my congressional delegation, to speak for me…and I feel absolutely abandoned,” said Mark Robokoff, who owns a pet supply shop in Anchorage and is staring down a more than 300% increase in the cost of insurance. […]
- Of the roughly 25,000 Alaskans enrolled in plans purchased through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, many… who will see the sharpest increase… are owners of small businesses who say their contributions to the Alaska economy are on the line.
- “This will pull the rug out from under me,”…Robokoff said his mindset so far has been a “fingers-crossed hope that Congress would not put us in this ridiculous situation.”
- Without the extension of the subsidies, [Loidolt said] she’ll be paying more per month for her health insurance than she spends on her mortgage.
- Given rising health care costs, Loidolt…is considering shutting down her business, laying off her employees and ending the accounting services she provides to roughly 40 small businesses.
- Nan Schleusner, a human resources consultant in Anchorage, said she and her husband… have relied on insurance purchased through the Affordable Care Act since the enhanced premium tax credits kicked in.
- “Thank God” they got the insurance, Schleusner said, because in 2022, she was diagnosed with cancer.
- Now, Schleusner is facing $37,000 in annual premium payments and a $15,000 deductible for her family of three, for the cheapest plan on offer…To keep the same plan she currently has next year, she’d pay more than 300% of this year’s cost, with premiums totaling over $52,000 annually.
- “It makes me want to throw up every time I look at it,” she said.
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