Well … guess what happened? For
openers, I refer you to this
Wall Street Journal headline from March 19: “Millions of Americans
Are Going Uninsured Following Expiration of ACA Subsidies.” The article
reported: “Nearly one in 10 people who had Affordable Care Act plans last year
dropped health insurance altogether, after premium costs rose sharply because
of the expiration of federal subsidies, according to a new survey.”
Since that article ran, states have
been reporting on their exact enrollment numbers for this year. In Georgia, for
example, more than half a million people—all of them faced, remember, with
higher gas and grocery prices—have decided to forgo coverage. The Georgia
Recorder reported
on April 20: “The 37% enrollment drop—from 1.5 million Georgians in January
2025 to 950,000 as of April 17, 2026—dwarfs any previous decline in the state
since the launch of so-called Obamacare health insurance plans in 2014.”
While some of that drop happened
before the subsidies expired, the lion’s share of it came after. It means that
if you make more than $64,000 in Georgia, you have to pay full sticker price
for health care, which in turn means that “for some Georgians, the cost of
premiums more than tripled,” according to the Recorder. And while the
numbers are more dramatic in Georgia, this is happening all over the country. It
will, in addition, have a lot of knock-on effects. For example, hospitals will
have to provide more uncompensated care, which leads to things like less money to
invest in equipment and technology, which leads to worse care.