Opinion | President Trump, Please Extend the A.C.A. Tax Credits

President Trump and congressional Republicans don’t seem to care if families like mine are unable to afford health insurance. I live in Kentucky with my daughter and my husband. He’s a computer programmer, and I work for a nonprofit. He’s a Republican, and I’m a Democrat. We make that work. Last year, my husband got laid off. He was the primary breadwinner in our family, so that was a real blow. The worst thing was that we lost our health insurance because he had always carried that through his employer. Fortunately, however, we were able to buy insurance on our state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace. But it was still really expensive. We would never have been able to afford it without the enhanced premium tax credits, which is a subsidy from the government which makes insurance affordable for middle-class families like mine. We’re hoping we can scrape together enough money next year to afford health insurance, but we’re already in a tight spot. My husband is still looking for work. I work a full-time job and two part-time jobs to make sure that we can keep our house and keep food on the table. My husband had a health scare last year. They found a tumor on his thyroid. His marketplace insurance paid for all the testing for us to find out whether or not he was OK. I am absolutely terrified that something like that’s going to happen again next year, or my daughter’s going to get sick and we’re not going to have coverage. I’m really worried about this government shutdown. People are going to lose really vital services because of it. President Trump, please extend the A.C.A. tax credits so that working families like mine have a shot at affording health insurance.