WATCH: Wisconsin woman’s emotions are high as tax credits set to expire

By Salina Heller

October 8, 2025

Christmas gifts. 🎁 In-state trips. 🚗

Retired La Crosse artist Kate Bausch gets emotional as she thinks about what she and her husband, who was a teacher for 38 years, will have to forgo if Republicans let existing tax credits expire.

The couple’s health insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act would be hiked by several hundred dollars a month.

“Four million Americans on the Affordable Care Act will have their health care terminated,” says Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), “And 22 million will have their premiums jacked up on average by 75%.”

When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) began in 2010 and the HealthCare.gov marketplace was launched to make it easier and cheaper for people without health insurance to buy coverage, the law included tax credits to lower the cost of premiums for people with incomes up to 400% of the federal poverty guideline.

In 2021, the premium tax credits were boosted so more people would be eligible and there’d be bigger savings, but they are set to expire at the end of this year.

✏️: Salina Heller

Author

Salina Heller

A former 15-year veteran of reporting local news for western Wisconsin TV and radio stations, Salina Heller also volunteers in community theater, helps organize the Chippewa Valley Air Show, and is kept busy by her daughter’s elementary school PTA meetings. She is a UW-Eau Claire alum.

View all posts

CATEGORIES: Politics Video

Support Our Cause

Thank you for taking the time to read our work. Before you go, we hope you'll consider supporting our values-driven journalism, which has always strived to make clear what's really at stake for Wisconsinites and our future.

Since day one, our goal here at UpNorthNews has always been to empower people across the state with fact-based news and information. We believe that when people are armed with knowledge about what's happening in their local, state, and federal governments—including who is working on their behalf and who is actively trying to block efforts aimed at improving the daily lives of Wisconsin families—they will be inspired to become civically engaged.