(Radio Iowa) – Members of the Iowa Farmers Union say they agree with Republicans who say something needs to be done about out-of-control health care costs, but the group’s executive director Matt Russell says letting thousands of Iowans lose the tax credits they’ve used to buy insurance — without having an alternative in place — doesn’t solve the affordability problem.

“What they have done is raised the costs for Iowans, including family farmers and rural entrepreneurs by thousands of dollars,” Russell said. According K-F-F — a health care research group, 27 percent of U-S farmers, ranchers and agribusiness managers have relied on subsidies to buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace. Seth Watkins raises cattle, sheep and bees in Page County. Watkins says insurance cost his family of four about 600-dollars-a month this year — and will nearly quadruple to 23-hundred dollars a month in 2026.

“I think a lot of people don’t realize that farmers and independent business people buy our own insurance,” he said. “I hear our politicians talk about us being the backbone of our economy and yet the people doing this that are making this have great benefits. I’d like them to put themselves in our shoes and understand what this is like.” Beth Hoffman, a Monroe County farmer, raises cattle and goats. She and her husband had been paying 300 dollars a month for insurance — and would have had to pay four times that much next year if they kept the same amount of coverage in 2026. They’ve opted for a bare bones plan with a seven-thousand dollar deductible.

“Here we are the United States of America (with) this great health care system, this place where we have some of the most wealth in the whole world,” she said, “…so it’s very disturbing on many levels.” Iowa Farmers Union President Aaron Lehman raises corn and hay in northern Polk County. “Our farmers right now are meeting with their lenders to try to find a plan just to get next year’s crop in the ground,” Lehman said. “The last thing we need right now is an increase in health care costs.”

The Affordable Care Act tax credits will still be available for households with an income under 400 percent of the federal poverty level, but the subsidies for households about that line that were extended in 2021 are scheduled to end December 31st.