By Laurel Vincenty
As Washington Republicans create a health care crisis and send health care costs soaring, families like mine will suffer.
My husband and I are small business owners, so we rely on the Affordable Care Act for health care coverage. We currently pay $400 per month for medical and dental care. But, because of Republicans’ refusal to fix the crisis they’ve created, our monthly medical health premium is expected to cost us 240% more in 2026. And my daughter, a Medicaid recipient, could lose coverage altogether.
As hardworking Americans, it’s frustrating to see this Republican administration refuse to extend these subsidies – not just to us, but to millions of people so we can afford health care. Washington seems out-of-touch if it thinks a working family can magically squeeze that much extra money into their budget.
In October, I took on a second job knowing we’d have to soon cover skyrocketing health care costs. We certainly can’t risk going without coverage – I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020. My husband had a heart attack last December. We pay hundreds of dollars in prescriptions every month, and if something else were to happen to one of us, we absolutely would need to be covered.
This worries me every day, but as a parent, I’m far more worried about my daughter. She is on the autism spectrum and relies on Medicaid – but Washington Republicans gutted Medicaid, ripping health care away from nearly 700,000 North Carolinians. My daughter could be one of them. All of this could have been fixed with one bill in Congress, but DC Republicans refused to support it or offer any other solutions to fix their health care crisis.
We’re less than a year away from an important U.S. Senate election here in North Carolina. It’s important for voters to know that Republican candidate Michael Whatley cheered on his fellow DC insiders as they shut down the government rather than make health care more affordable. Whatley called gutting Medicaid “a huge win.” Recently, Whatley even said the Affordable Care Act should be eliminated entirely, even though it has brought health care to a million North Carolinians. Next year, we must vote for candidates who have our back and will fight for affordable health care.
Laurel Vincenty is a small business owner in Morrisville, NC.
