Tom Barrett has a new ad about health insurance companies. The Washington Times reported on it last week, calling his Michigan 7th District one of the most competitive battlegrounds in the country.

"They get richer while we get sicker," Barrett says in it. "I don't take a dime from health insurance companies. I sent their money back and told them to lower premiums instead. Then I wrote the Care Over Profits Act to force them to spend more of your money on your care."

A consultant for his campaign told the Times that Barrett has "been on the receiving end of a lot of attacks" on health care, and "wanted to lean on it and lay some markers down."

So let's look at the markers he already laid down — in his campaign reports and in his votes.

"I sent their money back"

Barrett did send some insurance money back. One check.

His campaign's own reports to the Federal Election Commission show that in 2025, three political action committees run by health insurance companies gave to his campaign:

• Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan's PAC — $2,500 on March 31, 2025
• Centene's PAC — $1,000 on May 30, 2025
• UnitedHealth Group's PAC — $1,000 on June 30, 2025

The Blue Cross money went back. His campaign refunded the $2,500 on January 9, 2026.

That is the only refund to an insurance company's PAC in his filings this cycle. His reports, which now run through July 15, 2026, show no refund to UnitedHealth's PAC and none to Centene's.

The American Journal News, a progressive outlet, flagged the UnitedHealth check. The Centene check is in the same filings.

Look at the date on that one refund, too. January 9, 2026 was the day after the vote below.

The vote the ad doesn't mention

Since 2021, extra tax credits helped millions of people afford insurance they buy on their own through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. Those credits ran out at the end of 2025. Before they expired, KFF estimated that what subsidized marketplace customers pay in premiums would more than double on average — a 114% increase, from $888 a year to $1,904. When the 2026 numbers came in, KFF found enrollees' premium payments had risen 58% on average, from $113 to $178 a month — less than projected largely because people bought down to higher-deductible plans or dropped coverage.

In December 2025, after Republicans failed to agree on a vote to extend the credits, four Republicans broke with their party and signed a Democratic discharge petition — a way for a majority of the House to force a vote on a bill — for a three-year extension. Barrett was not one of them.

Barrett had three chances to help. He voted no all three times:

• January 7, 2026: the vote to pull the bill out of leadership's hands. It passed 221–205. Barrett voted no.
• January 8, 2026: the vote to set the terms for debating it. It passed 224–202. Barrett voted no.
• January 8, 2026: the vote on the bill itself, a three-year extension of the credits. It passed 230–196, with 17 Republicans voting yes. Barrett voted no.

Here is the part worth reading twice. The same day, Barrett's office put out a press release titled "Barrett Stands with Patients, Votes Against Blank Checks for Big Insurance Companies." It called the credits "COVID-era subsidies for big insurance companies."

But the credits exist to cut the premium the customer owes — which is why, once they ended, customers' own premium payments went up. Democratic staff on Congress's Joint Economic Committee estimated about 8,600 people in Barrett's own district would lose marketplace coverage.

Across Michigan, the damage showed up fast: 130,000 fewer people had marketplace coverage in one year, a 27% drop.

Barrett's answer, in December 2025, was to vote for a Republican health bill called the "Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act." It didn't extend the credits either.

He warned his own party. Then he voted for the cuts.

This isn't something Barrett didn't see coming.

In January 2025, he was one of about a dozen Republicans from competitive districts who met with House leaders and warned them not to gut Obamacare to pay for a massive border, energy and tax bill. According to POLITICO, the group told leaders they needed to "learn the lessons" of the 2017 fight over Obamacare, and argued that programs like Medicaid needed protecting too.

That bill became Trump's budget bill. Barrett voted for it at every step:

• February 25, 2025: the budget plan that set up Trump's budget bill. It passed 217–215. Barrett voted yes.
• May 22, 2025: the House version of the budget bill. It passed 215–214. Barrett voted yes.
• July 3, 2025: the final version, sent to Trump's desk. It passed 218–214. Barrett voted yes.

On two of those three votes, a single vote switching sides would have sunk it. Barrett didn't.

The same Joint Economic Committee tally of the health care cuts puts 14,621 people in Barrett's district on track to lose Medicaid coverage. Add the 8,600 losing marketplace coverage and it's 23,221 of his own constituents.

The Care Over Profits Act

The ad's last line is about a bill Barrett wrote. It's real. The Care Over Profits Act would make insurers that sell plans to individuals and small businesses spend 85 cents of every premium dollar on care instead of 80, and it would fine insurance agents and brokers who put incorrect information on marketplace enrollment applications.

He introduced it on March 9, 2026. It was sent to committee the same day. Nothing has happened to it since. Its only cosponsor is a Democrat, Rep. Josh Riley of New York.

Compare that to the votes. The bill Barrett wrote has never had a hearing. The budget bill he voted for is law, and the premium help he voted against expired at the end of 2025.

What the record shows

Barrett's ad says he doesn't take a dime from health insurance companies and sent their money back. His FEC reports show one refund, to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan's PAC, and $2,000 from the PACs of UnitedHealth and Centene still unreturned. He voted three times in January 2026 against bringing back the tax credits that kept marketplace premiums down, and three times in 2025 for the budget bill and its Medicaid cuts — and Democratic staff on Congress's Joint Economic Committee estimate 23,221 people in his district will lose health coverage by 2034 from the budget bill's cuts and the expired credits combined.

Source

Jesse Valentine, "Barrett's health care record undercuts campaign ad," American Journal News, September 16, 2026. Ad text from the Washington Times, September 12, 2026. Photo: Joseph Weiser/Icon Sportswire via AP Images, via American Journal News.