Editor’s note: On Tuesday, October 21, 2025, Deborah Weinstein — CHN’s Executive Director — joined Members of Congress, Protect Our Care, and civil rights advocates in calling for immediate action to protect Affordable Care Act health insurance. You can watch the full recording of the event here and read UnidosUS’ press release here. 

Nothing is more outrageous than the rejection of progress

Thanks to Protect Our Care and this opportunity for the Coalition on Human Needs to join with such distinguished leaders. Let’s start with this truth about government and those elected to serve: nothing is more outrageous than the rejection of progress. And when rejecting progress has life or death consequences, our outrage grows.

Health inequities are a longstanding life or death problem in this country. Black, Latino, and American Indian/Alaska Native people have gotten worse medical care and are more likely to be uninsured than whites. Blacks and indigenous people have more premature deaths. These are urgent problems, rooted in poverty and discrimination. We have a long way to go to address these inequities. But the Affordable Care Act has started to move us in the right direction.

For millions, the ACA’s Marketplace insurance has provided affordable health coverage. And once the enhanced premium tax credits were enacted, ACA’s coverage for individuals got more affordable. The number of people with ACA coverage doubled since the tax credits increased, rising from about 12 million in 2020 to over 24 million in 2025. A new analysis by Stan Dorn at UnidosUS has found that about half of marketplace enrollees are people of color.

This is good news. The enhanced premium tax credit has led to reductions in the number of uninsured. Uninsured rates for Black and Latino working age adults declined after the enhanced tax credits took effect. We need more progress, but finally, we’ve been going in the right direction.

But now, if Congressional leaders and President Trump refuse to extend the enhanced premium tax credit, we will see an entirely needless and dangerous step backward. They enacted a giant pile of tax breaks worth trillions of dollars earlier this year, overwhelmingly favoring the rich. But they left out the expanded

premium tax credit, which will expire in December if they continue to refuse to act.

So this is the outrage – an entirely needless and dangerous step backward. People of color, still more likely to lack health insurance despite their recent gains, will be a prominent part of the more than 4 million expected to lose their health insurance if Congress fails to act now. The service providers, faith groups, labor and civil rights members of the Coalition on Human Needs are proud to stand with the leaders here today to call on the Republican leadership to act now, before open enrollment starts November first – tie it to ending the shutdown. Commit to continued progress, not outrageous backward steps, for all our people.