CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Tom Perriello urged Republicans in the Senate to vote to extend tax credits for Americans who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace, and used the opportunity to slam 5th District Republican Congressman John McGuire for his vote against the extension in the House.

“There’s absolutely nothing standing in the way of getting help to the middle class and small business owners next week,” Perriello told Cville Right Now on Thursday. “The only thing is Republicans in the Senate have to let it happen. The only thing standing in the way of some tax relief and healthcare relief for the middle class and small business owners is Republicans in the Senate. And they need to be held accountable for that increase in costs.”

The former Congressman and current candidate for the Democratic nomination to challenge McGuire in the midterms, said the vote is a simple one on extending the tax credits, not a referendum on the future of universal healthcare, and should receive bipartisan support.

A vote to extend failed in the House, despite 17 Republicans, including 1st District Rep. Rob Wittman, joining the Democrats in supporting it. McGuire was among those who voted against the extension.

“We need to see some Republican courage in the Senate to cross over and put their constituents first,” said Perriello, who represented the 5th District from 2009-11. “And there’s nowhere to hide on this bill. This is not complicated. This is a direct extension of tax cuts to the middle class and small business owners for them to be able to afford healthcare. Nothing else.”

Earlier, Perriello spoke at a Protect Our Care event Thursday morning at Central Library in downtown Charlottesville, joining Dr. Peggy Plews-Ogan, a city doctor, Elizabeth Beasley, a county small business owner, and Katie Baker, Virginia state director for Protect Our Care.

Baker spoke first, noting that only two weeks remain until open enrollment in ACA closes, emphasizing the urgency that Congress act now to extend the tax credits that help make ACA plans affordable for working class Americans.

Baker said that 80% of small business owners in Virginia get their health insurance from the ACA marketplace, and said the end of the credits will make their costs go up. That’s in part because insurance companies anticipate raising costs by about 20% to make up for lost customers, Baker said.

That will impact the 35,000 people in the 5th District who bought their plans through the ACA marketplace.

It’s a concern shared by many in the medical community, said Plews-Ogan, who has practiced medicine in Virginia for the last 30 years. She said that small business owners, restaurant workers and non-profit employees will be among those most impacted.

“I have absolutely no doubt that if these tax credits are taken away the people of Charlottesville and our region will suffer,” Plews-Ogan said. “I know that because I know what I was like for my patients before the ACA tax credits. The people we’re talking about are middle and low-income, working people who don’t happen to work in a job that provides health insurance.”

As the owner of a local consulting company and the mother of four girls, that’s something Beasley said she understands from first-hand experience.

Beasley said before the ACA, her family paid about $1,400 a month for coverage. Under the ACA, she said that price dropped to about $700 a month for a better plan. Now, with the end of the tax credits, the same coverage will cost Beasley’s family about $1,600 a month.

“That kind of swing, hundreds of dollars a month, thousands of dollars a year, year after year, is kind of staggering,” Beasley said. “And it’s not unique to our family.”

That’s why Perriello, who voted to pass the original ACA in 2009, when he was the last Democrat to represent the 5th District, said Congress needs to extend the tax credits now.

“Whatever your feelings are about broader healthcare reform, John McGuire had an up or down chance to vote on something very simple,” Perriello said. “Do you want to help the middle class and small business owners afford healthcare, or do you want them to pay more? That is also the vote in the Senate. This is not about broader healthcare reform. This is a very simple choice. Will Republicans in the Senate increase costs on the middle class and small business owners, or are they willing to stick it to those people who are getting squeezed most in the middle for their monthly cost of healthcare? Everything else is a distraction from that right now. This is an up or down vote, where you get to see where politicians stand.”