New data from the Pennsylvania Democratic Party says more than 12,400 of Rep. Scott Perry's constituents have already been forced to drop their health insurance. That's not a surprise. It's the direct result of choices Perry made — and keeps making.

Perry voted for the healthcare cuts. And now, as premiums explode across central Pennsylvania, he's fighting to make it worse: he called extending the tax credits that keep his constituents covered a "colossal mistake."

The "colossal mistake"

The enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits — the help that lowers monthly premiums for people who buy their own insurance — are set to expire at the end of the year. Extending them would keep coverage affordable for hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians.

Perry doesn't want to extend them. He co-wrote a Newsweek op-ed with the House Freedom Caucus arguing the credits should die, and, as Keystone Newsroom reported, called extending them a "colossal mistake." Fox43 confirmed the same: Perry says making sure people can afford their health care is the mistake.

Let that sink in. The "colossal mistake," in Scott Perry's view, is helping you pay for a doctor.

What it does to his own district

This isn't abstract. When those credits expire, the price hikes in Perry's PA-10 district are brutal, according to marketplace data reported by Keystone Newsroom:

• A 60-year-old married couple earning about $82,000 would see their premium jump from $581 a month to $2,934 a month — a 405% increase.
• A family of four earning about $78,000 would see their premium more than double, from $260 to $541 a month.

Statewide, more than 435,000 Pennsylvanians get coverage through Pennie, the state marketplace. If the credits expire, average premiums rise about 82%, and up to 270,000 Pennsylvanians are projected to lose coverage. In Perry's part of the state, premiums are already rising by an average of about 177%.

These are working families, retirees a few years short of Medicare, and small-business owners. Perry represents them. He's choosing to let their costs explode.

He already voted to take coverage away

The premium spike is only half of it. Perry also voted for the broader Republican healthcare cuts. The nonpartisan Joint Economic Committee estimates that in PA-10 alone, 23,069 people are projected to lose health coverage — about 8,000 losing ACA coverage and 15,069 losing Medicaid.

This fits a career-long pattern. Perry has voted 12 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and once compared the ACA to "slavery and prohibition." He has spent 13 years in Congress trying to take away the very coverage his constituents depend on. Now the bills are coming due — literally, in the form of premium notices landing in mailboxes across York, Cumberland, and Dauphin counties.

Who he actually works for

If you want to know why Perry keeps voting this way, look at who funds him. His top donors include Club for Growth, the Freedom Caucus Fund, private-equity giant Blackstone, and the insurance-broker lobby. These are the interests that profit when public programs shrink and people are pushed into paying more.

And true to form, Perry won't face the people he's hurting. He hasn't held an in-person town hall since 2019, dismissing constituents who show up as "professional protesters." When hundreds packed a "Perry-less" town hall in Harrisburg, the chair reserved for him sat empty.

A congressman who votes to strip your coverage, calls it a "colossal mistake" to help you keep it, and then won't even show up to explain himself — that's not representation. That's abandonment.

Source

• Keystone Newsroom: GOP Congressman calls ACA tax credit extension a 'colossal mistake'
• Pennsylvania Democratic Party: New data: Perry-backed healthcare cuts cause more than 12,400 central Pennsylvanians to drop coverage