To the editor,

I’m deeply disappointed in Derrick Van Orden and will not vote for him. Wisconsinites need affordable healthcare. We’ve been asking for it for years. While he enjoys healthcare paid for by us, the taxpayers, he has turned a blind eye to his constituents' pleas.

Healthcare prices are skyrocketing, but Van Orden refuses to make life more affordable for Wisconsinites. Instead, he voted for the 2025 tax bill, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill (it should be called One Big Brutal Bill).

Millions of Americans who buy coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace have seen their premiums skyrocket They may have dropped down to lower-level coverage plans or left the marketplaces altogether. Despite bipartisan majorities in both chambers of Congress supporting an extension of the tax credits that made coverage affordable for more than 22 million people, the Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress allowed them to expire. Advocates estimate 5.5 million people will lose coverage as these impacts snowball.

Recently, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released 2026 enrollment data showing that nearly four million people have already dropped coverage since January, and more than five million people have lost ACA coverage since the start of the Trump administration. Coverage may soon look worse for many who remain in the individual market. The 2027 payment rule expands access to “catastrophic” plans with deductibles as high as nearly $30,000, allows plans with no provider networks to be sold on the Marketplace, and restricts states from requiring coverage of essential services.

In summary, Van Orden’s answer to premiums we can’t afford: let insurers sell more expensive plans that cover less.

Don’t give Van Orden your vote on Nov. 3.

Erin Tomlinson

River Falls