[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 4 (Wednesday, January 7, 2026)]
[House]
[Page H107]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        RISING HEALTHCARE COSTS

  (Mrs. Sykes of Ohio was recognized to address the House for 5 
minutes.)
  Mrs. SYKES. Mr. Speaker, today I rise because families in Ohio's 13th 
Congressional District and across the country are already paying the 
price for Republicans' inaction on healthcare. The enhanced ACA premium 
tax credits expired December 31, 2025, and now health coverage is more 
expensive and families are already feeling the impact.
  In my district, 90 percent of the 32,000 people who get ACA coverage 
rely on those subsidies. Four out of five were previously able to find 
plans for $10 or less per month. That safety net is now gone. Families 
are seeing premiums jump by hundreds of dollars a month or thousands of 
dollars a year. Across the country, more than 4 million Americans have 
already lost or are at risk of losing their healthcare coverage 
entirely.
  This isn't a theory. It is happening right now. In Canton, AultCare, 
a regional insurer tied to Aultman Hospital, stopped offering some 
individual family and small business ACA plans before December 31. That 
affects 6,000 people in my district. These are working families and 
small business employees losing coverage because Republicans refuse to 
act.

  I have fought to protect these credits by cosponsoring legislation to 
extend them and by signing on to Leader Jeffries' discharge petition to 
bring the issue to a vote on the House floor. Instead of acting, 
Speaker Johnson and House Republicans chose to delay, and that action 
is simply unacceptable.
  Don't just take my word for it. Just a few weeks ago, Congressman 
Mike Lawler called Speaker Johnson's refusal to allow a vote idiotic 
and political malpractice, and I agree. What happened? Speaker Johnson 
sent us home for the holidays while American families paid the price.
  Republicans also pushed a partisan healthcare bill that would make 
things much worse by increasing the number of uninsured people, 
shifting costs onto working families, and weakening the protections 
that so many Americans rely upon.
  I offered an amendment to protect working families from losing health 
coverage and to protect access to reproductive healthcare. But guess 
what. Republicans blocked it. Once again, they chose politics over 
people.
  We cannot forget the real people caught in the middle of this. These 
are families deciding between healthcare and groceries and between 
medicine and rent. Access to healthcare should be a right, not a 
gamble. At a time when we are talking about the horrors and tragic 
costs of the drug trade and the impact it has on American people, let 
us not forget how people get drug treatment. It is from the Medicaid 
program that has already been cut by a trillion dollars and the ACA 
marketplace health plans.
  The Republicans' failure to act is literally going to kill people 
across this country. They let deadlines pass, premiums rise, and 
coverage disappear. That is not leadership. That is failure.
  Mr. Speaker, the choice is clear. Congress can either act to restore 
affordable healthcare or we can continue to let premiums sore, coverage 
vanish, and families face financial ruin.
  I know one thing is for certain, Mr. Speaker. I was brought to 
Congress to work on behalf of the people of Ohio's 13th Congressional 
District to lower costs, to keep them safe, and to make sure that they 
had affordable, accessible healthcare coverage.
  Mr. Speaker, I encourage every single Member of this Chamber to do 
those things, not only for the people in my district but for the people 
all across America who are asking and needing Congress to act.

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