House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi used an event Monday about Covered California open enrollment to sound alarms over the number of Californians who may lose their healthcare due to Trump's Big Beautiful Bill.
Eight Senate Democrats rolled over and a temporary spending bill is making its way to the House today, where it will likely pass. And what's missing from the bill was the Democrats' central demand in this shutdown, which was the extension of Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits so that millions of Americans don't see their premiums skyrocket.
A leading force behind getting the ACA passed 15 years ago was Nancy Pelosi, who was Speaker of the House at the time. And Pelosi attended an event Monday at Book Passage in San Francisco, promoting the open enrollment period for Covered California — the state's healthcare marketplace established under the ACA.
Around 1.7 million California residents could see their premiums double following massive cuts to the Obama-era subsidies under the ACA, with those subsidies expiring on December 31. Open enrollment under Covered California began on November 1 and runs through January 31 — but assuming the tax credits expire, state residents are urged to sign up by December 31 to lock in current premiums for 2026.
"While Donald Trump and Republicans are inflicting a painful shutdown on the American people because they refuse to protect America’s health care, California is taking action to ensure working families have access to coverage," Pelosi said in a statement. "If Congress doesn’t extend the Affordable Care Act’s premium tax credits immediately, hundreds of thousands of families in California will lose their health care, and 1.7 million families will see their costs skyrocket. We must continue to fight for a responsible, bipartisan path forward that reopens the government and keeps health care affordable for the American people."
Around 40,000 San Franciscans rely on Covered California for their healthcare plans. And it's estimated that around California, an average increase in premium costs of 97% in 2026 will leave around 400,000 residents priced out of the marketplace.
"It covers folks up to a higher income level than Medi-Cal. But for many of those folks, health care is still otherwise unaffordable," says Daniel Tsai, SF's director of public health, speaking to ABC 7.
Pelosi added, speaking to ABC 7, "It is a remarkable thing that [the Republicans] would take half a trillion out of Medicare, millions of people out of Medicaid, and not renew the subsidies. Why? To give a tax break to the richest people in America."
When asked about her legacy, vis a vis the 15-year-old ACA, Pelosi tells the station, "Not so fast on the legacy... I have another year."
Related: Nancy Pelosi Says She'll Retire After 2026
Top image: Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks during a prayer rally on the ninth day of a federal government shutdown in the courtyard of St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill on October 09, 2025 in Washington, DC. The federal government remains shut down for the ninth consecutive day after Congress and the White House failed to negotiate a deal on extending pandemic-era health care funding. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
