The numbers are in, and they tell a devastating story: tens of thousands of Illinoisans have lost their health insurance because it simply became too expensive, according to the Illinois Health Benefits Exchange Advisory Committee (HBEAC).

Since open enrollment ended, more than 90,000 people have unenrolled from marketplace coverage. Nearly two-thirds lost coverage because they could no longer keep up with their monthly premiums. Among those who chose to leave their plans, more than three-quarters said affordability was the reason. 

This didn’t happen by accident. It happened because Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans chose not to act when they had the chance to protect affordable coverage for working families. They allowed enhanced premium tax credits to expire, fully aware that premiums would spike and that people would be forced to make impossible choices between paying for health insurance and paying for groceries, rent, or childcare.

For months, advocates, health care providers, and state leaders warned of this exact outcome. Disenrollment is two to three times higher than anything Illinois has experienced in recent years, and lower-income families—those least able to absorb higher costs—have been hit the hardest.

While Illinois worked to help residents navigate these changes and keep coverage where possible, there is only so much a state can do when federal leaders walk away from their responsibility. The affordability crisis plaguing health care, and especially marketplace consumers, today is a direct result of decisions made in Washington.

Every one of these coverage losses represents a person who may now delay seeing a doctor, skip medications, or face medical debt because health care became unaffordable. Trump and Congressional Republicans own this outcome. Illinois families are paying the price for their failure to act.