Virginia Congressman Wittman among just 17 Republicans nationally to back ACA credits extension

While more than 400,000 Virginians get their health insurance through the state exchange, over 300,000 utilize special subsidies that expired last year, State Corporation Commission data obtained Wednesday by The Mercury shows. 

The numbers, reflective of June 2025, crystallize how many people are facing the choice between higher premiums this year or forgoing health insurance altogether.

Renewing the subsidies has been a paramount debate among federal lawmakers for months, spanning last fall’s government shutdown and persisting into the new year. Last week, when the U.S. House greenlit a measure to extend the credits for three years, U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Westmoreland, was the only GOP member of Virginia’s congressional delegation to join the state’s Democratic representatives in voting to pass it. 

Wittman was one of just 17 Republican congressional representatives nationwide to support the three-year extension effort. The bill still has to pass the Senate and then be signed by President Donald Trump — a vocal critic of the credits. 

What are ACA tax credits and where are they being used in Virginia?

The subsidies, formally called the Enhanced Premium Tax Credits, help people purchase insurance through the Affordable Care Act. The 16-year-old federal law created government-run marketplaces for people without employer-provided insurance, but who earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid, to be able to buy coverage. The special credits make health care accessible for millions living in lower income brackets around 100 to 400% of the federal poverty level. 

That includes Williamsburg-area resident Natlie Tyer, who said she is able to maintain health insurance thanks to the credits, while she works part time and finishes her master’s degree to become a school counselor. Tyer attends William and Mary in Williamsburg, a historic city in the 1st Congressional District, which Wittman represents. About 30,000 people living there have utilized the subsidies, according to SCC data. 

When asked to explain his vote, Wittman said he was thinking about his constituents when he aligned with his Democratic colleagues to advance the measure to extend the credits.

“This vote was about responsible governance — protecting families from sudden cost increases today while fighting for better, conservative solutions tomorrow,” he said in a statement emailed to The Mercury after declining a phone interview request. 

The Mercury followed up by email asking for more details about health care solutions Wittman would like to seek beyond what he called the “strictly temporary” extension of the subsidies, but did not receive a response by the time of this publication. 

With higher premiums, financially burdened people have been left with the choice to pay more for health care or forgo it and risk being without insurance in case of medical emergencies. 

If the subsidies are not renewed, Tyer has said she may have to go without health insurance coverage in the upcoming year.

“Do I just rely on a strategy of hope until I graduate from grad school, and I get a job in the public school system?” she asked in an interview last summer.

Analyst: Congressional Republicans’ votes on health care could put them at odds with voters

Before Wittman emerged as the lone congressional Republican in Virginia to side with Democrats on the matter, his colleague in the 2nd District, Jen Kiggans, R-Virginia Beach, pressed for one-year and two-year extensions of the subsidies. She voted no on the latest effort to resurrect the credits because the House proposed a three-year extension, she told The Virginian Pilot. 

Political analyst Bob Holsworth said that “Kiggans voted her beliefs, and one can always credit somebody for doing that.” 

“But,” he added, “I think politically this was a damaging vote.”

He noted that Democrats have eyed the districts as potentially flippable, at a time where both affordability issues like health care and a referendum on Trump can motivate people to the polls. 

The Trump-backed reconciliation bill Congress passed last summer is expected to cause thousands of Virginians and millions nationwide to lose Medicaid health coverage and changes to hospital funding mechanisms could trigger service cuts or closures. Eventually, people with private insurance could see rate raises as hospitals will occasionally negotiate with private insurers to offset costs. 

Both Wittman and Kiggans had been outspoken against previous versions of the bill but ultimately supported it. 

“A lot of people who aren’t affected (by ACA or Medicaid) are still concerned about affordability and the votes of somebody on these high profile issues can kind of leak over into the broader affordability issues as well,” Holsworth said. 

Those reconciliation bill changes, however, won’t fully kick in until after the congressional midterms. 

In the meantime, the ACA subsidy debate is not yet over. While Trump has signaled he would likely veto the matter should it get to his desk, Republican Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno plans to lead the charge to bring the credits back to life on his side of the aisle. 

Moreno has framed supporting the extension as a way to align with Trump’s motto of putting “America first.” To triage immediate financial injury to Americans and Virginians, Wittman described his vote as a short fix for now. 

“Allowing those costs to spike overnight would have punished working families while doing nothing to fix the underlying problems in the system,” he said. 

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com.