Two Families, Two Responses to Spiking Obamacare Costs

Introduction to the Crisis

Nearly half a million Illinois residents who buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act are at the center of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Most rely on enhanced tax credits to make their Obamacare insurance premiums more affordable. If the credits expire at the end of the year, as planned, experts predict insurance costs will skyrocket, forcing some to become uninsured. Democrats had pushed to make the government reopening contingent on extending those credits. But the deal before Congress this week only commits Republicans to holding a vote to extend them by mid-December.

The Impact on Illinois Residents

On average, Illinois residents are expected to pay 78% more for insurance without the enhanced credits, according to Get Covered Illinois, the state’s new Obamacare marketplace. A form of tax credit will still exist but it will be smaller. “There are very few people who have the economic means to be able to easily absorb increases of that size and scale,” said Kara Murphy, president of the DuPage Health Coalition. “And for very low-income families who depend on these subsidies to be able to bring health insurance within reach, it can have a really devastating consequence.”

‘Keeping Me Alive’

Lisa Brennan Winefield is focused on trying to stay healthy and taking advantage of her health insurance through the end of the year because she assumes she’ll have to do without come January 1.
Victor Hilitski/For the Sun-Times

Lisa Brennan Winefield has less than two months to get in as many health screenings as she can before she likely becomes uninsured once again. She recently spent two hours on the phone trying to get an appointment for lab work before getting in her car and driving to her doctor’s office to talk to someone in person. She also needs to get a mammogram and a skin cancer screening, though she was told an in-network appointment wasn’t available for 18 months. But what’s most pressing for Brennan Winefield, who lost her dad to colon cancer at just 42 years old, is scheduling a colonoscopy before her health insurance likely ends in December. “I had my kids when I was in my 40s, so even though I’m 60 … I still have teenage kids,” she says while sitting on a picnic table in Independence Park in Evanston, not far from her home. Without a screening, “I would die of colon cancer,” Brennan Winefield says, her voice rising with conviction. “The Affordable Care Act is, literally, keeping me alive.”

The Financial Burden

Brennan Winefield, of Evanston, pays $343 a month for a BlueCross BlueShield plan through the ACA Marketplace. She hasn’t even looked into how much a plan will cost for next year because she knows she can’t afford it. But she suspects it would likely be about $1,200, based on the cost of her current plan last year without the enhanced tax credits. “I’m short every month, I’ll just put it that way,” she says of her current expenses. “I scramble every month. I’m always juggling, like, figuring out which bill to pay.”

Projected Increases

This graphic includes the text of the Affordable Care Act. It also shows the projected annual dollar increases and percent increases of ACA premiums broken down by Illinois congressional district that are expected after the ACA enhanced tax credits expire at the end of 2025. Sources: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Protect Our Care Illinois.
Illustration by Mendy Kong/WBEZ

‘We Can Live Only Maximum 10 More Years’

<img class="Image" alt="seconddesign (1).png" srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/40488de/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000×2000+0+0/resize/840×560!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fa1%2F0b%2F24faf5fa4ff0b1da2b743989fc3d%2Fseconddesign-1.png 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f51f163/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000×2000+0+0/resize/1680×1120!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fa1%2F0b%2F24faf5fa4ff0b1da2b743989fc3d%2Fseconddesign-1.png 2x" width="840" height="560" src="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/40488de/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000×2000+0+0/resize/840×560!/quality/90/?url=https