Jenny Turner is a speech language pathologist who lives in West Des Moines. She is the board president of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and a member of the Fighting Oligarchy leadership team. This column first appeared in the Marshalltown Times-Republican.

I became a widow at age 38 when my son was 7. Solo parenting is hard, but thanks to the Affordable Care Act I’ve been able to work part-time from home in a way that makes our lives work pretty well.

In January, my health insurance premiums will jump 79 percent, from $191 to $342 per month.

For a lot of single mothers, that difference is their grocery budget for the month. This price hike is because of Republican inaction. Our representatives in Congress—Zach Nunn (IA-03), Ashley Hinson (IA-02), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01), and Randy Feenstra (IA-04)—have known these increases were coming for months, but chose to do nothing to prevent them.

Even after the government shut down for 43 days over this issue, Republicans refused to sign onto an extension of tax credits for families like mine. The best they came up with was HR 6703: a half-baked plan that does nothing to help families like mine. This legislation, sponsored by Miller-Meeks and unanimously supported by Iowa’s other U.S. House members, has a lot to say about transparency for pharmacy benefit managers, and the false solution of association health care plans. But it does not address the massive spike in premiums that Affordable Care Act marketplace customers are facing in a matter of days.

Even worse, the Senate has no plans to take up this bill. In other words, the whole proposal has no chance of becoming law, and was all just for show.

Now, the House has adjourned for the year. So while families watch their health care costs go through the roof, Iowa’s representatives in Congress are at home, enjoying their Christmas recess. Their inaction on this issue is a stark contrast with earlier this summer, when they jumped at the chance to give billions of dollars in tax cuts to the rich, with no strings attached.

This choice tells you everything you need to know about their priorities: billionaires over families like mine.

Fortunately, they have the opportunity to do the right thing when they return to Washington in January. Right before Congress adjourned, four Republicans joined all House Democrats to sign Discharge Petition 10, forcing a floor vote on a clean, three-year extension of enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act health insurance. Nunn, Miller-Meeks, Hinson, and Feenstra will have to vote yes or no on this proposal sometime in January.

So, as we enter a new year, I ask our representatives in Congress to make a 2026 resolution: put families before billionaires, and vote in favor of extending ACA premium funding.

Families like mine are counting on them to do the right thing.