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Posted on 11/19/2025 7:00:28 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin woman who gets her health insurance through the Affordable Care Act says she’s bracing for next year — when tax credits expire.
“This is going to hurt our family,” Shana Verstegen, a Madison fitness instructor, log roller, and mother, told News 3 Now Tuesday.
Like log rolling, raising a family requires a lot of risk. “We have two young boys and don't feel good about not having health insurance with the two boys,” Verstegen said.
However, Verstegen and her husband are now preparing to pay a lot more for peace of mind next year.
“It's really, really adding up,” she said.
If the enhanced tax credit for Affordable Care Act customers is allowed to run out, they’ll have to pay an extra $2,500 a year.
“We've already had to make so many cuts in everything else, and with the prices of groceries and childcare and electricity and everything going up, it's a really big impact for our family,” Verstegen said.
According to Gov. Tony Evers and Wisconsin's Office of the Commissioner of Insurance, a family of four on Obamacare making $130,000 a year could see their premiums double if they’re in Dane County or triple if they live in Barron County.
“It's important to point out that our increase is small change compared to what a lot of people are going to have to go through,” Verstegen said.
She took her fast feet to Capitol Hill to speak to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle about the impact this will have on her and other families.
This was before the government shutdown ended, with talks about extending the tax credit tabled for a later date.
“They gave up on us, you know, we feel like the Democrats caved,” Verstegen said. “We have one month until we have to make that decision about what our healthcare is next year, and we pay that first premium for 2026, and a lot of the things being put on the table are not quick fixes.”
“If we're going to cut some of our kids’ activities, my husband is looking at other places to work that would provide more funding toward health care — we don't want to do that. We have been at our job for almost 30 years,” Verstegen said, “and the fact that we're being punished for this hard work, by the loss of these premium tax credits, really, really strikes a nerve.”
According to local insurance agents, there are concerns that more people who are healthy may decide not to have health insurance because it’s not affordable anymore without the tax credit.
This could cause companies to raise rates for others who depend on insurance coverage because the risk pool would be higher.
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If every family in America walked away from or boycotted insurance, how soon would we see numbers changing in the favor of the American people?
Bears repeating.
Same with auto insurance, food, rent, etc.
The expiration of tx credits will likely cause a re-ordering of insurance as many people will simply be unable to pay for the health insurance, perhaps even a return to the free market which would lower prices and flush out all the social programs that those premiums pay for.
...without a single Republican vote for it... but now many Republicans will defend it to their dying.
Funny how it doesn’t occur to her that strangers (taxpayers) have been paying the $2500 on her behalf (probably more — the $2500 is just the “extended” tax credit” that is expiring).
I propose that Congress take a few minutes off from EpsteinEpsteinEpstein to work out how to squeeze enough waste and fraud out of the byzantine health care finance mess, and bring her costs down?
My company pays $21,000 on my behalf for health insurance. It is not a gift, it is part of my compensation package. For that I get a $4,000 deductible x2 with a cap at $8,000. So before I get a dime’s worth of coverage I pay $25,000 - $29,000. I should get cash instead of benefits and enroll on the exchange.
If the Republicans blow this opportunity to rollback Obamacare look for companies like mine to start moving people onto the exchange. Healthcare will consume the federal fiscal such that we will be forced to spend huge amounts and ration care. While gutting defense spending. Ask the UK how this goes.
“Everything going up”….ignorant assumption. Beef is going up. Most other food is going down. Gas, fuel oil, natural gas going down.
Regulations are killing housing cost.
It is a mixed bag. ACA
Is part oft that mixed bag.
Checking to see if I care...nope.
Mostly because of state government requirements
Yep. They’re out of ‘The People’s Republic of Madistan.’ Also, ‘nuf said!
I ‘escaped’ 10 years ago. Should’ve been sooner but I loved my little farm in Dane County. Now I have a bigger farm (Iowa County) and love that all the more. Less lunatics running loose, property taxes are HALF what they were for 100X the land, etc.
And that’s just ONE county over from the insanity! Log Roller as a profession? I’m surprised they didn’t find a Circus Freak to interview for this piece, LOL!
“Mothers learned from their mothers and from their friends - experiences of what worked and didn’t work. They were the doctors.”
When we got a cut or a scrape, my parents would use ‘Grandma’s Goose Grease’ on us. Yes, it was just a topical antiseptic salve, but we kids really though it WAS goose grease until we were older. ;)
I never needed stitches, but Dad did - Grandpa gave him some whiskey and sewed him up himself.
“It’s not the original Obamacare that is the BIG problem. It is the tack on during Covid....it made everyone and their brother eligible for the subsidies.”
Truth!
If it requires government subsidies, it is not affordable is it?
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