SCRANTON — 240 battery powered candles rested on the steps of Scranton City Hall Sunday representing the 240,000 Pennsylvanians who could lose their health care coverage if Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits expire this year.
The candles were set up by organizers with local advocacy groups, Action Together NEPA and Pennsylvania Policy Center, along with SEIU, Pennsylvania’s largest union of health care workers and nurses, who gathered with roughly two dozen residents for a vigil to, “uplift families facing unaffordable insurance premiums and demand that Republicans return to the negotiating table on behalf of working-class constituents, not billionaires.”
“Each candle represents a life, a family and a story that matters,” said Dwayne Heisler, Action Together NEPA board president and Pennsylvania Policy Center campaign director.
Organizers and attendees called on U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, who represents the 8th Congressional District, and U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, to support lower health care premiums.
The vigil was supposed to take place across the street from a fundraising event for Bresnahan, featuring House Speaker Mike Johnson, but that event was canceled due to the ongoing government shutdown.
“While premiums are soaring to unaffordable heights, millionaire Congressman Rob Bresnahan doesn’t have to worry. His stock portfolio is safe and his helicopter will still take off on time. But for working families in Scranton and across Pennsylvania, healthcare has become a luxury that they cannot afford,” Heisler said.
Reps for Breshanan did not immediatly respond for comment on Sunday.
Under the Trump Administration’s spending bill, which was signed into law in July, the enhanced premium tax credits that were first introduced in 2021 will expire. According to Pennie, the state’s Obamacare marketplace, this will cause insurance premiums to increase by 82%.
In the 8th Congressional District, which covers Lackawanna County and parts of Luzerne County, Pennie said premiums will increase by 71%.
The state department announced on June 16 that, on average, insurers are asking for a 19% increase to premiums in the individual market (for people who buy their own insurance), and a 13% increase to premiums in the small group market (for small businesses), partly because of the tax credits expiring.
Pennie estimated in a June 12 department letter to House Delegation on the Reconciliation Bill that 270,000 Pennsylvanians will lose access to health care “due to the collective impact of the cost increases and enrollment barriers” set forth in the spending package.
The Associated Press reported on Oct. 1 that the ongoing government shut down came as Republicans and Democrats reached a stalemate over funding.
While Republicans supported a short-term measure to fund the government generally at ongoing levels through Nov. 21, the AP reported that Democrats blocked the measure, insisting that it address their concerns on health care, which included extending the ACA tax credits.
Sue Wiggins, a laboratory technician at Regional Hospital in Scranton, explained how premium increases would affect people.
“If they can’t afford their healthcare, then they’re gonna drop it. They’re gonna drop it and they won’t be coming to the hospital for preventive care, which in turn means they’re going to come to our emergency room in sicker health than they were before,” Wiggins said. “And their care may be uncompensated, which ends up being the employer passing on those higher costs to everyone, all of us, and then all of our healthcare and insurance premiums go up.”
According to Wiggins, the slashing of Medicaid and Pennie would also cause service cuts, layoffs and closures throughout home care programs, clinics and nursing homes.
“That includes vulnerable hospitals like mine at Regional, where we’re already barely hanging on by a thread. These cuts will lead to more financial losses, making it even harder for us to provide care for our over 381,000 patient who visits every year,” she said.
Krysten Xanthis, a home health aid, said that making sure Pennsylvanians have health care coverage is not a Democrat or Republican issue, but a human one.
“This is about the health of working people, our loved ones and our communities,” she said. “We just need people to see that they shouldn’t care just about their pocket. They need to care about the people that have hearts and souls.”