Nearly half a million Illinois residents who buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act are at the center of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

Most rely on enhanced tax credits to make their Obamacare insurance premiums more affordable. If the credits expire at the end of the year, as planned, experts predict insurance costs will skyrocket, forcing some to become uninsured.

Democrats had pushed to make the government reopening contingent on extending those credits. But the deal before Congress this week only commits Republicans to holding a vote to extend them by mid-December.

On average, Illinois residents are expected to pay 78% more for insurance without the enhanced credits, according to Get Covered Illinois, the state’s new Obamacare marketplace. A form of

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