Ellen Allen: The unmasking of ‘Capito Care’

This Op-Ed was originally published on November 4, 2025 in the Charleston-Gazette Mail.

By Ellen Allen

This week, I did what millions of Americans are doing — I went online to re-enroll in my health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace.

When I saw my new premium, I felt a pit in my stomach. While I was expecting a much higher increase, it was a punch in the gut to see my premium had jumped 410%.

I currently pay $479.84 per month — nearly $6,000 a year — for my Obamacare plan, including vision and dental coverage. I like this health care plan, and it is affordable.

However, under my new Capito Care plan, my monthly premium will be $1,965.87 — and that’s without vision or dental coverage. I simply can’t afford it. If I stayed on this plan for a full year, it would cost me a staggering $23,590.44. I’m lucky, because I will qualify for Medicare next fall. But most West Virginians aren’t that fortunate.

And to add insult to injury, my out-of-pocket costs under Capito Care will be $9,900.

Nothing about my life changed. The plan is the same, except next year I have to forgo vision and dental insurance. My income is essentially the same. The only thing that changed is policy.

And that’s the part that hurts most, because it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, it’s only in the United States of America that health care is this way. It’s yet another slap in the face to Americans.

For the last few years, millions of Americans — including 67,000 West Virginians — have been able to afford marketplace coverage thanks to expanded federal tax credits. Those tax credits were a game-changer. They kept people insured. They kept small business owners afloat. They kept families healthy. The tax credits helped reduce West Virginia’s uninsured
rate from approximately 20% to below 6% — an extraordinary achievement.

But those credits didn’t vanish by accident. Congress is letting them expire. In fact, the fourth highest-ranking Republican in the Senate, senior Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., voted to make health care unaffordable and out of reach for tens of thousands of West Virginians. Junior Sen. Jim Justice, Rep. Carol Miller, and Rep. Riley Moore, all R-W.Va., also voted for this.

People like me, and thousands more across our state, are being forced to pay hundreds if not thousands more every month for the same coverage — while millionaires and big corporations get big tax breaks. Who decided we are undeserving of health care?

That’s not an economic inevitability. That’s a political choice.

When lawmakers choose to cut taxes for the wealthy instead of keeping health care affordable for working families, they are choosing who wins and who loses. And it’s clear that people like you and me — the teachers, caregivers, small business owners and retirees — are being asked to lose. This was a policy decision. Our healthcare was sacrificed.

West Virginians know what it means to work hard and play fair. We don’t expect special treatment. But we do expect fairness — and right now, there’s nothing fair about a system that rewards billionaires while punishing families who just want to see a doctor when they’re sick.

This is fixable. Congress can act now to restore and make permanent the ACA’s expanded premium tax credits. Doing so would save lives, protect families and strengthen our economy.

Health care is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. The ability to afford it should never depend on how much money you make or who you voted for.

It’s time for our leaders to put people before profits, families before corporations and patients before politics. Because when we say health care is a human right, it’s time we act like it.

Ellen Allen is executive director of West Virginians for Affordable Health Care.