As someone living with a chronic health condition, affordable health insurance is essential.

My family purchases our own health care through the individual health insurance marketplace because we don’t get coverage through an employer.

Enhanced premium tax credits have made it possible for us to afford a plan that covers the care I need to stay healthy.

These tax credits are set to expire in 2026. If Congress doesn’t act now to extend them, our premiums will skyrocket. We simply can’t afford that, and neither can the other Pennsylvanians who use these tax credits to afford their coverage.

Our representatives in Congress must work to extend these critical tax credits — and they must do it quickly.

Time is running out. Open enrollment is just around the corner, and rates here in Pennsylvania are expected to jump by an average of 19% if the tax credits expire. That’s money many of us don’t have.

Congress must act now to extend these tax credits and protect families like mine from being priced out of the care we need to survive.

Cristi Lynne Waltz

East Freedom