As the government shutdown nears its third week, some Wisconsin residents are worried about what it could mean for their health care costs.

Nearly all Americans enrolled in the Affordable Care Act marketplace receive premium tax credits to help them afford insurance plans. Democrats enhanced the subsidies in 2021 under President Joe Biden, saving the average person an estimated $700 per year, according to an analysis from the health research group KFF.

With those enhanced tax credits set to expire at the end of this year, Democrats are demanding they be extended as part of any deal to end the government shutdown.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin said in a press conference Friday that many Wisconsinites will soon receive letters telling them their health care premiums “may double or, in some cases, triple or quadruple.”

“When we talk about the idea of costs being increased, there are real people being impacted,” Baldwin said.

Joining Baldwin was Amanda Sherman, who works in real estate as an assistant. She does not receive insurance through her employer and uses the ACA to purchase health insurance. Sherman said she pays about $300 per month for insurance right now.

“And I anticipate it going at least double that,” Sherman said. “What I had heard is that premiums were going to be going up anyway, so that if we lose our subsidies as well, it will just be much worse.”

Sherman said her health care costs are high because she suffers from various lifelong illnesses like lupus. She said her monthly medication would cost $4,000 without insurance. 

“I was just at my rheumatologist office, and my lupus symptoms are practically not even there, and my blood work looks really good. And he told me, if you stop taking this, it will come back,” Sherman said. “So I’m afraid that next year I will be so sick or I won’t even be alive if I’m not able to keep my health insurance.”

Some premium prices are already increasing in states across the country. In Georgia, ACA consumers have seen them quadruple or more.

About 16 million Americans would lose insurance from Medicaid and ACA cuts, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. An analysis of those numbers by Democrats on the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee found that includes more than 258,000 Wisconsinites. 

Republicans and Democrats continue at a standstill. The House of Representatives has been out of the session for nearly three weeks. The Senate failed to advance a bill to end the shutdown on Thursday.

Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson has blamed the rising costs on the “faulty design of Obamacare.” Johnson is backing a measure that could receive a vote in the Senate next week that would pay some federal workers while the shutdown continues.

The previous government shutdown lasted 34 days — the longest in U.S. history.