This Rusk County small business owner is saving big on health care premiums – and her employees benefit, too

Chrysa Ostenso, a small business owner in Ladysmith, a city in Rusk County, had been paying almost $2,000 a month in health care premiums – just for herself and her husband

“But once the American Rescue Plan (ARP) went through, it went down to about $280 per month,” she said. 

Ostenso and her husband Erik passed on the saving – almost $24,000 per year – to their employees in the form of higher wages. They also helped employees obtain their own health insurance plans through the state exchange set up by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which passed in 2010 when Joe Biden was vice president. 

“It was the first time most of them had health care coverage. Everyone should be able to afford quality health care,” says Ostenso, whose young daughter faced a serious cancer diagnosis in the years before ACA and was booted off the family’s insurance plan, setting up a mad scramble for coverage. “We are all just one accident, one illness, away from catastrophe.” 

Helping Many Workers

Wisconsinites are finding health care coverage easier to get and easier to pay for, thanks to two pieces of Biden-Harris legislation passed in the last three years. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and ARP are bringing reduced prescription drug costs, free vaccines, help paying for premiums, and a raft of other benefits to the Badger State. 

The IRA, passed over fierce opposition of Congressional Republicans, delivers: 

• Protection from sky-rocketing drug costs for nearly one million Wisconsinites enrolled in Medicare Part D, by capping out-of-pocket costs; 
• Free shingles, RSV, and other medically recommended vaccines that previously required a co-pay from Medicare enrollees;
• A monthly cap of $35 on insulin, benefiting some 59,000 Wisconsin Medicare enrollees who rely on that medication; 
• An extension of coverage for 43,000 state residents who were set to lose their health care at the end of 2022; 
• Expansion of the “Extra Help” subsidy program, moving thousands of low-income Part D enrollees from partial benefits to full benefits. 

The ARP dramatically expands the number of people eligible for health care subsidies at all income levels. In Wisconsin, more than 200,000 residents who get their coverage through the state exchange have seen their costs drop by an average of $1,080 annually, due to ARP subsidies.

Here’s what it has done and continues to do:

• Expand premium subsidies for low-income seniors;
• Expand eligibility and increased subsidies for low-income people;
• Expand home and community-based health care services, allowing seniors to get care closer to home in in some cases, remain in the homes;
• Increase funding for treatment of mental health and addiction disorders.

Both IRA and ARP build on the Affordable Care Act.  A record of more than 266,000 Wisconsinites got health care coverage through ACA’s Healthcare.gov exchange during the 2024 open enrollment period.

Help for Your Family 

To find health care coverage for you and your family, and see if you qualify for premium subsidies, see https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/getcovered/index.htm