During a virtual press conference with the advocacy group Protect Our Care, Rep. Kathy Castor warned that Florida could be among the hardest hit if Affordable Care Act tax credits expire at the end of the year.

“This is going to hit Florida hard,” Castor said.

The credits, first expanded in 2021 under the American Rescue Plan and later extended through the Inflation Reduction Act, help lower premiums for people who buy coverage on the ACA marketplace. If Congress fails to renew them, about five million Floridians could see sharp increases in monthly costs.

Protect Our Care brought two Floridians to the call to put a human face on what those numbers mean in daily life.

Sue Gottsman lost her job in 2019 when her employer’s business closed, and remained unemployed during the pandemic while caring for her mother as her health declined. Through it all, she said, her ACA coverage never lapsed.

She stayed insured even when she was struggling. Now working as a substitute teacher without benefits, she’s feeling the pinch as a lapse in coverage looms.

Jorge Luis also joined the call. In 1985, a diving accident left him paralyzed – a C5–C6 spinal break that, he said, changed everything.

The average cost of caring for a paraplegic person like him is about $185,000 a year, Luis divulged. His last wheelchair cost $20,000, and his accessible vehicle cost $90,000. Those numbers, he added, are what survival looks like for people in his position.

Through the ACA, Luis’s wife has been able to stay home as his primary caregiver. That may soon change, forcing her to find other work. Losing that support, he said, would feel “like putting a death stamp on my forehead.”

Luis, a pastor in Port Richey who’s completing a PhD in theology, urged politicians to see his humanity.

Castor said she’s ready to work on a solution, but the fight over renewing the credits is tied up in Washington’s broader budget negotiations, with a government shutdown continuing if lawmakers can’t agree on a spending plan.

People are already getting notices in the mail about premium increases, and other insurers across the state are preparing to raise rates. A rumor last week that some Republicans might support Democrats on extending the tax credits, Castor said, has not materialized. “It’s been radio silence.”