Last year, vulnerable Republicans Gabe Evans and Jeff Crank cast a key vote against extending ACA tax credits – forcing Coloradans to pay skyrocketing premiums or drop health care coverage altogether. Already this year, Coloradans have seen their premiums rise 22%, with rates expected to go up another 11% in 2027.
Now, the alarm bells are ringing as Colorado families start to feel the impacts of Evans and Crank’s agenda, with one insurance commissioner saying the blame is squarely on the “Republican majority in Congress for failing to extend tax credits,” noting that they “continually warned that Congress’ failure to extend the enhanced premium tax credits would lead to instability in the market.”
DCCC Spokesperson Lindsay Reilly:
“Make no mistake: Gabe Evans and Jeff Crank are to blame for Coloradans’ skyrocketing health care premiums. Evans and Crank have forced hardworking Colorado families to make impossible choices, like putting food on the table or going to the doctor, and they’ll kick him to the curb in November.”
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KUNC: Consumers who buy individual health insurance through ACA can expect premiums to rise next year
- If you buy health insurance on the individual market, through the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace, your rates are expected to go up by an average of 11% in 2027.
- Nationally, enrollment in the ACA marketplace is down by 3 million people, about 13% after the tax credits expired at the start of the year, according to independent healthy policy group KFF.
- “Rates are skyrocketing yet again,” said PriyaTelang, communications manager of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative. “The Trump-led Republican Congress has slashed healthcare help for families and small businesses that need it so they can fund tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations. This just adds to the affordability crisis Coloradans are facing” which she said will only get worse when the Medicaid cuts from H.R. 1 start in full in January.
- Republicans said they voted for the legislation because it permanently extended tax cuts, provided a check on federal spending and secured the southern border.
- “Republicans are under no obligation to extend a Biden-era policy in the One Big Beautiful Bill,” 8th District Rep. Gabe Evans told CPR when the bill passed last year.
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