Trying to add a payment method? You can do this on the 
QuickTake:
Bartley Armitage and Carla Zimmerman are grappling with an Affordable Care Act premium that is about to more than quadruple. They traveled to the Capitol this week, where Armitage spoke before a U.S. Senate committee.
Bartley Armitage leaned toward the microphone in a Senate chamber more often reserved for billionaires, senior lawmakers and policy researchers.
Armitage, a 64-year-old retired construction worker from Eugene, sat at a table before the Senate Finance Committee in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Nov. 19, for a discussion about the Affordable Care Act and its expiring tax credits that allow people to get insurance at a lower rate.
This means Armitage’s premium will more than quadruple — from $443 to $2,200.
He spoke clearly, confidently and compassionately.
“Making health care affordable for everyone is the type of thing we expect our tax dollars to go toward in a country like the United States,” he said. “It’s a good country, it’s a strong country and it’s a rich country. People should not have to go without care.”
He and his wife, Carla Zimmerman, began their trip to testify more than 28 hours earlier at the Eugene Airport, leaving their home at 3 a.m. Tuesday.
But their journey had been exhausting long before they packed their bags.
Sticker shock for the working class
Both Armitage and Zimmerman have been working their whole lives.
Armitage lost his father at 12 and lived in a basement with his mother and siblings, and he tended to soybean farms with his grandparents. By 19, he went straight into blue collar trades.
Zimmerman started working at 13, held jobs through high school and later became a teacher. They went on to have their own family together with three children.
As they grew older, their health problems mounted. Armitage couldn’t keep up with younger workers and needed knee surgery. Zimmerman became sick from black mold in their home. They had to move and later faced medical debt after their insurance only partially covered a surgery she needed.
They retired early. They were simply tired.
Working construction takes a toll. I retired realizing I could no longer compete physically with 25-year-olds.
Bartley Armitage
The Affordable Care Act has been the couple’s lifeline, allowing them to see doctors on their fixed income. So when their premium was set to quadruple as a COVID-era tax credit expires in January, they were shocked. An increase that steep could drain their savings and jeopardize their ability to afford their home.
Those tax credits were among the sticking points between Democrats and Republicans during budget talks, leading to the 43-day government shutdown. Democrats, including Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., warned that the loss of the credits would be devastating for families in Oregon, like for Armitage and Zimmerman, and others across the country.
The couple joined Wyden at a mid-October press conference at the Charnelton Community Clinic, part of Community Health Centers of Lane County, in downtown Eugene.
They then told their story on Wyden’s social media platforms. It drew more than a million views across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
“Thousands of comments of people who are in the same boat we’re in,” Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman and Armitage spoke with Lookout Eugene-Springfield from their hotel room in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday about why they decided to step onto a national stage.
“He’s not just doing it because of us,” Zimmerman said. “It’s really all the other people that have contacted us.”
About 92% of the 24 million Americans enrolled in ACA marketplace plans receive a tax credit, including about 9,900 people in Lane County.
These are often working families who earn too much for Medicaid but still struggle to afford coverage without the discount.
Even those who can pay locally face complications in the area’s strained health system — from provider turnover to long wait times for emergency care. And for those who do qualify for Medicaid, more than 90,000 in Lane County are navigating a state-led transition between PacificSource Community Solutions and Trillium.
For people like Zimmerman and Armitage, it feels as if the options for basic care are dwindling.
The testimony
In his opening remarks during Thursday’s Senate Finance Committee hearing, ranking member Wyden underscored that Armitage and Zimmerman are part of a growing group of people waiting to reach Medicare, the federal health insurance program for those 65 and older.
“The two of you are the sort of the face of the health care challenge in America,” Wyden said. “You played by the rules, and you worked hard, and you were ready to have a bit of help for those couple of years until you were eligible for Medicare.”
Before Armitage spoke, a panel of policy experts — Jason Levitis of the Urban Institute, Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum and Brian Blase of the Paragon Health Institute — outlined what their organizations’ research shows about the tax credits.
Their views ranged from Holtz-Eakin’s call for stronger incentives to Blase’s criticism of the Affordable Care Act as a failure. With just six weeks left in the year, Levitis warned that extending the tax credits was the only immediate option.
Then came Armitage, speaking for himself and for Zimmerman seated behind him, as he laid out their life story.
“Keep our health costs affordable,” he told the senators. “Before we’re hit with a massive bill like this in January. It’s literally overnight.”
The committee hearing stretched nearly two hours with no clear outcome in sight with debate largely reflecting a decade-long divide between Democrats and Republicans over the Affordable Care Act and insurance companies.
During questioning, Armitage fielded both tough inquiries — including from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who pressed him about the ability to pay — and words of appreciation from others, such as Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M.
“I want to thank you for being here and having the courage to speak up,” Luján said. “We need more people like you, not just here as a witness. We need more like you elected to the United States Senate.”
But for Armitage and Zimmerman, they just want to live quietly in Eugene.
“We want to be around to see our granddaughters grow up,” he told the senators. “Our fear is that without health insurance, we won’t be able to go to the doctor if we’re not feeling well, and face those consequences. We know people who haven’t had the opportunity, and it breaks our heart to think about what they’re going through, missing out on life because they couldn’t afford to get the care that they needed.”
