Families on Obamacare brace for higher health care premiums next year

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/obamacare-higher-premiums-2026-
affordable-care-act-rcna226637

Leighanne Safford and her husband, Lorry, pay just $278 a month for health 
insurance. But starting Jan. 1, their monthly premium could jump to as 
much as $1,800.

Safford’s family is among the millions who could be forced to pay hundreds 
of dollars more for their health insurance premiums next year as enhanced 
Affordable Care Act subsidies expire at the end of December.

The enhanced subsidies were put into place under the 2021 American Rescue 
Plan, which made ACA plans affordable for many middle-class families. The 
Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 extended the subsidies through 2025.

The Republican-controlled Congress, however, didn’t extend the subsidies 
in either of the two major funding bills passed so far this year. It’s 
uncertain whether Republicans will extend them later this month in a bill 
to keep the government funded.

For Safford, the effect could be compounded by rollbacks to Medicaid 
expansion in President Donald Trump’s sprawling legislative bill signed 
into law over the summer. She fears her 13-year-old son, Adam, could lose 
his Medicaid coverage, so the family is also planning to pay for his 
health insurance in 2026.

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Safford said they can’t afford the $1,800 monthly premium — which only 
accounts for coverage for her and her husband — without cutting back on 
essentials like food or dental care. So instead, they’re looking to switch 
to a cheaper, high-deductible plan that would cover the entire family. The 
trade-off: While the monthly premiums are typically lower, they’d have to 
shoulder higher out-of-pocket costs before coverage kicks in.

“Right now, we’re making a decision based on the three of us being 
relatively healthy,” Safford said. “But I mean, as we all know, with 
health, that could change any day.”

More than 24 million people got their health insurance through the 
Affordable Care Act in 2025, according to data from the health policy 
research group KFF. Of those, more than 9 in 10 — 22.3 million people — 
qualified for the enhanced subsidies. (That figure includes people who 
also qualify for the ACA’s standard subsidies for very low incomes, which 
went into effect in 2014 and are expected to continue.)

In Mississippi, Florida, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah and 
Alabama, at least 96% of ACA enrollees received enhanced subsidies. New 
Hampshire and Washington state had the lowest rates, at 71% and 73%, 
respectively.

If the enhanced subsidies expire, nearly 4 million people are projected to 
go without coverage in 2026 because they won’t be able to afford the 
premiums, according to a 2024 analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, 
the nonpartisan agency that advises Congress on budget and economic 
issues. That number is expected to balloon to almost 7 million people by 
2034.

If Congress doesn’t act, “millions of people will become uninsured,” said 
Edwin Park, a research professor at the Georgetown University McCourt 
School of Public Policy. “Without these subsidies, it’ll be much more 
costly.”

A double whammy
Open enrollment for next year’s ACA plans begins Nov. 1.

But for many families, the “sticker shock” will come in October, when 
formal notices land in their mailboxes outlining next year’s monthly 
premiums, said Jessica Altman, executive director of Covered California, a 
state-based marketplace for ACA coverage.

“There’s a lot of fear,” she said. “Whether that’s someone who has cancer 
or a chronic condition who knows that they need it, or someone who thinks, 
‘I may just have to go without and just cross my fingers.’”

In Sacramento County, Altman said as an example, a family of four earning 
$113,000 a year could see its monthly premium jump by about $1,550 if the 
government subsidies expire, compared to just $112 if subsidies remain.

On top of the subsidies expiring, states must also factor in expected 
premium hikes from insurers next year.

It’s “a double whammy of premiums going up and then tax credits 
potentially going down,” Altman said. A report from KFF found that 
insurers that offer ACA plans are planning an average premium increase of 
around 18% across the U.S. for 2026. Combined with the loss of subsidies, 
people could pay an average of 75% more in premiums, according to KFF.

People who still qualify for the standard ACA subsidies won’t be spared, 
either, said Cynthia Cox, vice president and director of the program on 
the ACA at KFF. Without the enhanced subsidies, the amount the government 
pays toward their monthly premiums will shrink.

“The effects are going to be pretty widespread,” Cox said. “Pretty much 
everyone who buys their own health insurance is going to be affected by 
this one way or another.”


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November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look 
forward to America being great again.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that 
stupid people won't be offended.

Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.

Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama 
/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.