Memo to Congress: Act quickly to extend enhanced premium tax credits for hardworking South Dakotans

In recent years, more South Dakotans — including small-business owners, entrepreneurs, farmers, and working families — have turned to the individual marketplace for health insurance. A critical part of this health insurance lifeline is the enhanced premium tax credits that help lower the cost of monthly premiums for eligible enrollees.

Unless Congress acts quickly, these tax credits will expire at the end of the year. If that happens, families in South Dakota and across the country will feel it quickly and deeply.

If the enhanced premium tax credits expire, health care costs will go through the roof. Some families could see their premiums double. Millions would lose coverage altogether. Inevitably, people will go without the prescriptions, check-ups, and preventive care they need to stay healthy because they simply can’t afford these essential parts of health care.

The tax credits are making a difference in our state. More than 53,000 people in our communities are using them right now to make their health insurance affordable. We’re talking about small-business owners, farmers, early retirees, and working parents trying to keep their families covered. If Congress takes these credits away, a lot of good people will be left without options.

As the former South Dakota state director for USDA Rural Development, I know how these kinds of programs benefit communities. Letting the tax credits expire would be a gut punch to rural communities, in particular. Costs would pile up — not just for families, but for rural hospitals, small-town providers, and state budgets. People don't stop getting sick when they lose coverage. They just stop seeking care until it becomes an emergency. It's an outcome that ends up costing all of us more.

New county-level data shows that the average annual out-of-pocket premium increase would be 25 percent higher for rural enrollees without the tax credits. Premium increases would average $760 per year and could climb as high as $3,000. In Bennett County, for example, one of South Dakota’s most rural communities, enrollees who use the premium tax credits would pay, on average, $1,740 more per year for marketplace health coverage. This is not sustainable for the farmers, ranchers, small business owners, and families in Bennett County, and across the state, who rely on these credits to maintain their access to affordable health care.

This isn’t a partisan issue. More than 86% of voters in the last election supported efforts to keep these credits in place. That includes 82% of people who voted for President Trump. Given this widespread support, there’s no excuse for inaction. Congress has a clear choice: protect the tax credits and maintain access to affordable care, or sit back while premiums spike and coverage disappears.

Congress can’t ignore this issue. Voters are paying attention.

The last thing families need is another financial burden, especially when there is already a solution in place that works.

The enhanced tax credits are doing what they’re supposed to do — they are making health care more affordable. Congress needs to extend these credits now. Lowering the cost of health care should be a top priority. We can’t afford to let these critical tax credits expire. Call South Dakota’s members of Congress today.

Nikki Gronli of rural Dell Rapids was the state director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development in South Dakota during the Biden administration and the former vice chair of the South Dakota Democratic Party. Gronli held town halls in Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Vermillion, Aberdeen and Mitchell earlier this year.

Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons

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