Congress will vote this afternoon to bring back healthcare tax credits as Wisconsin families are already struggling with skyrocketing healthcare costs in 2026
MADISON, Wis. – This afternoon, Congressmen Derrick Van Orden and Bryan Steil have an opportunity to bring back health care tax credits and make coverage affordable for working families across the state. Thanks to Republicans in Congress, premiums have already gone up significantly in 2026 and tens of thousands of Wisconsin families are struggling to afford health insurance.
The proposal in front of Congress, which was forced to a vote thanks to a bipartisan discharge petition last year, would restore health care tax credits for three years. This would help bring premiums back down and provide families with the relief they desperately need. Van Orden and Steil both refused to sign onto the discharge petition but have an opportunity to reverse course and support the extension when it comes to the floor today.
“Wisconsin families are being forced to choose between paying for skyrocketing health care premiums or going without coverage – all because Republicans in Congress let health care tax credits expire at the end of last year,” said Opportunity Wisconsin Program Director Meghan Roh. “Congressmen Van Orden and Steil have a choice today: they can vote to bring back health care tax credits and provide relief to tens of thousands of Wisconsin families, or they can continue to stand by while their constituents struggle. It’s time for them to do the right thing and vote to bring back health care tax credits.”
This week, Opportunity Wisconsin launched a new TV ad in the Third Congressional District highlighting the real-world impact of expired health care tax credits on Wisconsin families. The ads feature Marty, a constituent of Van Orden’s from Sparta, whose insurance premiums skyrocketed by more than $12,000 per year after health care tax credits expired.
“The change to my monthly health insurance bill. The most basic plan went up twelve thousand dollars. Because Congressman Derrick Van Orden got his way, they took away our health care tax credits,” Marty says in the ad. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do. How could you do that to another human being?”
In Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District, 33,000 people rely on health care tax credits to afford coverage. In Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, more than 30,000 families use the tax credits.
