WARREN – Local residents, organized by a left-leaning organization, spoke against U.S. Sen. Jon Husted for not extending the Affordable Care Act’s tax credits that expire at the end of the month.

Janeen Shackelford of Youngstown said the credits “have been a lifeline for me. They allowed me to become a real estate agent knowing I could afford coverage on the marketplace. Now, because of Jon Husted’s votes, my premiums are tripling next year and I won’t be able to afford my health insurance.”

Shackelford was among about a dozen people Friday outside the closed Insight Hospital and Medical Center Trumbull in Warren to speak against the Republican senator regarding the expiring ACA tax credits.

The event was organized by Protect Our Care, a left-leaning organization that advocates for the ACA.

About 583,000 people in Ohio receive health coverage through the ACA. An enhanced tax credit in the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act and then in the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 decreased premiums for those people. The Inflation Reduction Act established the expiration date for the credits at the end of this month.

The Senate is expected to vote next week on a Democratic plan to extend the credits.

Mike Phifer of Warren said Friday that Husted’s position means “my premiums, and thousands of others, are going up next year. It’s just one more thing getting more expensive thanks to Sen. Husted.”

A Husted spokesperson said: “To address the shortcomings of the ACA, Sen. Husted supports a fraud, freeze and fix approach paired with a short-term extension of the premium subsidies. Reduce the explosion of fraudulent enrollees from the (Joe) Biden COVID subsidies, free the subsidies where they are now so they don’t become a growing burden on the American taxpayer, and fix other cost drivers within the healthcare system to actually lower prices for Americans, not just transfer the burden to taxpayers.”

Husted was appointed to the Senate in January by Gov. Mike DeWine, a fellow Republican, to replace J.D. Vance, who resigned to become vice president.

Husted, who was lieutenant governor at the time of his Senate appointment, will face Democrat Sherrod Brown, a former three-term senator who lost reelection in 2024, in the November 2026 election.