Extended health care credits at center of government shutdown. Here's what WI members of Congress say about it

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Democrats in the U.S. Senate are digging in, taking a position they won't support measures that extend funding of the federal government unless they include an extension of tax credits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

While the government shutdown took effect Wednesday, most of the effects won't be felt by the public at-large for at least several days. The White House and Republican leaders are calling for Democrats to support a temporary extension of federal spending at current levels.

GOP Congressman Glenn Grothman told CBS 58 from his Fond du Lac office Wednesday he believed talks about extending the health care credits should not be tied to any short-term extension of government funding.

"This is not about where we wind up in a negotiation. The question now is, 'Are we gonna shut down the government while we negotiate?'" he said. "Obviously, there are gonna be many areas of disagreement between Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans as we negotiate."

Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin told CBS 58 in an interview Wednesday afternoon there's not enough time to put off talks on tax credit extensions. She noted open enrollment was approaching, and insurance companies in the ACA marketplace are already setting prices.

"Insurance companies are setting their premium rates for next year, and if we do not act expeditiously, we can't just put this aside and hope we come to some resolution," Baldwin said. "We need to act now."

Citizen Action of Wisconsin, a left-leaning healthcare advocacy group, supports the Democrats' approach. The group's executive director, Robert Kraig, said allowing the ACA tax credits to expire would only lead to sharper cost increases for patients.

This year, a little more than 270,000 people in Wisconsin are receiving those tax credits.

Kraig said if premiums rise because the credits went away, he worried it'd spark a cycle of healthier people opting out of the marketplace. That'd leave a smaller pool of enrollees, and prices would increase even more since a higher percentage of those enrollees would have health problems.

"Healthier people say, 'Oh, well I can drop out because we're, knock on wood, healthy for now,'" Kraig said. "So, that's why insurance companies have raised their rates 18% starting in 2026 to account for the negative impact of cutting these subsidies and pricing people out of health coverage."

Kraig cited an August report from the Peterson Center and Kaiser Family Foundation that found the median premium increase for 2026 among more than 300 insurers in the ACA marketplace is 18%.

The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates the average ACA plan premium will increase by 75% if the tax credits expire. For a family of four with a household income of $90,000, that amounts to a premium increase of $3,735.

Grothman said House Republicans were informed Wednesday funding for the Women, Infants & Children (WIC) food assistance program will run out of money in the next week or two.

He maintained Democrats were on the verge of folding and agreeing to a short-term funding extension because the public would hold them responsible for any hardship from funding pauses to programs like WIC. He cited two Democratic senators and an independent who voted for a short-term extension resolution that fell short of the necessary 60 votes Tuesday night.

"Right now, in an effort to make sure we're prepared to open the government as soon as possible, [House Speaker] Mike Johnson has encouraged Republicans to be back in Washington Monday," Grothman said. "We believe that since a few of the Democrats have already broken with leadership and voted to open the government, it's only a matter of time before the other Democrats say, 'We don't care, [Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer.'"

The Trump administration and GOP leaders have accused Democrats of holding up the budget in order to give taxpayer-funded healthcare to undocumented immigrants. However, such aid is explicitly illegal, and none of the Democrats' proposals during this cycle have offered to change that.

When pressed to evidence to back their claim, Grothman cited California Congresswoman Maxine Waters saying outside the U.S. Capitol Tuesday, "Democrats are demanding healthcare for everybody," when asked about support for undocumented migrants.

"It's a lie," Baldwin said. "And sometimes when the truth is inconvenient, we hear them tell these untruths."

Kraig said he believed Democrats could end up winning more public support if they're able to make the case their actions are specifically meant to keep healthcare costs from increasing. He went on to say that could help the party in next year's mid-term elections, as long as there is follow-through should Democrats gain power at the state and federal levels.

"It doesn't do us any good if it's a big electoral issue, and people get elected on it and they don't actually fix the system," Kraig said. "But to do that, they need a whole lot of public pressure to take on the massive lobbying power and political power of the big hospitals, big drug companies and big insurance companies."