ALEXANDRIA, Va. — With open enrollment for Affordable Care Act plans starting next week, Virginians are receiving letters warning that their health insurance premiums are about to rise as a result of expiring federal tax credits now tied up in the government shutdown.

Laura Packard of Alexandria knows the cost of health care all too well. Eight years ago, she was diagnosed with cancer and credits the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, for saving her life.

“It was six months of chemotherapy, a month of radiation treatments, and all that is not cheap in America,” Packard told WUSA9. “I would have found the money somehow, or I would not be here.”

Packard, one of nearly 400,000 Virginians who get coverage through the ACA marketplace, just received a notice from Kaiser Permanente showing her mon

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