Urge senators to extend healthcare tax credits

It is up to each country to seek “strategies and resources in order to guarantee each person’s fundamental right to basic and decent healthcare” (Message for the 31st World Day of the Sick). Health is not a luxury! A world that discards the sick, that does not assist those who cannot afford care, is a cynical world without a future. Let us always remember this: health is not a luxury, it is for all.

—Pope Francis, address to health professionals, 16 January 2023

Urge senators to extend healthcare tax credits

On Monday, the Mercy Justice Team joined over 300 other faith communities in sending a letter to leadership of the Senate and its Appropriations Committee, urging them to extend the enhanced tax credits that have kept health insurance affordable for 24 million people. Without the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits, it’s estimated that 4.8 million people will enter 2026 without health insurance, foregoing preventive care and delaying needed interventions that would avert true emergencies. Even worse, perhaps 50,000 people will die in 2026 without the ACA enhanced tax credits. Protecting these neighbors and preventing their expected suffering are the reasons that the government shutdown in October and November went on so long; the Senate’s promise to vote on this extension is what brought the shutdown to an end.

Please use the draft email in the grey box at right (below on mobile devices) to urge senators to pass the ACA enhanced tax credit extension, protecting nearly 5 million of our neighbors and keeping healthcare affordable for everyone in this country.