{"id":269155,"date":"2025-11-08T03:35:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T03:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/269155\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T03:35:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T03:35:15","slug":"aca-premium-increases-who-will-get-hit-hardest-in-four-charts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/269155\/","title":{"rendered":"ACA premium increases: Who will get hit hardest in four charts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Open enrollment for 2026 coverage on the Affordable Care Act exchanges is underway. And millions of consumers are now seeing just how expensive<\/a> their health insurance policies will be without the enhanced premium subsidies that have been in place since 2021.\n <\/p>\n

\n The enhanced subsidies<\/a>, which are scheduled to lapse at year\u2019s end, have enabled many lower-income Americans to obtain coverage with no or very low monthly premiums and broadened eligibility for assistance to many middle-class consumers.\n <\/p>\n

\n But that will all change if Congress does not agree to renew the more generous subsidies \u2014 a central sticking point in the federal spending talks to reopen the government. Those who will be hit the hardest by soaring premiums include lower-income, older and middle class enrollees.\n <\/p>\n

\n The amount people will have to pay will more than double, on average, because of the lapsing subsidies and insurers\u2019 rate hikes, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group.\n <\/p>\n

\n The enhanced tax credits, which were enacted by a Democratic-led Congress during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021 and renewed the following year, have proven very popular. They helped draw a record 24 million people to sign up for coverage in 2025.\n <\/p>\n

\n More than 90% of enrollees are receiving premium assistance, which, for roughly half of policyholders, reduces their monthly cost to $0 or near $0.\n <\/p>\n

\n If the enhanced subsidies lapse, about 4 million more people are expected to be uninsured in 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office.\n <\/p>\n

\n Much of the growth has been concentrated in Southern states, many of which have not expanded Medicaid to low-income adults. The enhanced subsidies allow the states\u2019 residents who live just above the poverty line to receive coverage with no or very low monthly premiums.\n <\/p>\n

\n About half of the growth since the subsidy boost went into effect comes from Texas, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, according to KFF.\n <\/p>\n

\n Most current enrollees live in a state won by President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election or in a congressional district won by a Republican lawmaker.\n <\/p>\n

\n Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill remain bitterly<\/a> divided over whether to extend the enhanced subsidies. The stalemate has prevented them from approving a federal funding package for the current fiscal year, leading the government to shut down<\/a> on October 1. The impasse recently broke the previous record of 35 days.\n <\/p>\n

\n Democrats say any spending bill must renew the beefed up assistance, while Republicans say they won\u2019t negotiate until the government reopens.\n <\/p>\n

\n Initially, the majority of Americans of all political persuasions supported extending the subsidies, according to a KFF survey conducted in late September.\n <\/p>\n

\n But as the shutdown as worn on, support among Republicans and Make America Great Again supporters has waned.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open enrollment for 2026 coverage on the Affordable Care Act exchanges is underway. And millions of consumers are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-269155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}