![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SN_BANNER_APP-LIVE-STREAM_GIF_30968_SC_v02D-1.gif\")
<\/a>\nFlorida lawmakers differ on how to handle potentially higher health care premiums<\/p>\n
Millions of Floridians could face higher health insurance premiums in 2026.<\/p>\n
The looming spike comes as lawmakers in Washington face off over enhanced tax credits applied in 2021 to the Affordable Care Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n Republicans want to cut the enhanced credits. While Democrats are fighting for the tax credit to stay.<\/p>\n With 4.7 million enrolled in the public marketplace, Florida could be impacted if subsidies are allowed to expire.\u00a0<\/p>\n Florida Rep. Darren Soto argued on X<\/a> that Florida will be the hardest hit state if health care premium subsidies enabled by the Affordable Care Act are allowed to expire at the end of the year.<\/p>\n \u201c4.6 Million Floridians will see HUGE healthcare hikes of 75% or more unless Congress fixes it. The clock is ticking!\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n Floridians impacted by those subsidy cuts could either pay higher premiums or otherwise drop coverage altogether.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what\u2019s so frustrating is that we see the majority party cut off their nose to spite their face. They just want to keep those headlines. They just want to give meat to their base. But they\u2019re not focused on how people are actually living,\u201d Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Florida Republicans are brainstorming aid. Although it seems Medicaid expansion is off the table.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll we\u2019ll see as a state what we need to do. So I\u2019ll be open-minded to it, not expansion, but to certainly figure out how we can best help those who need the help the most,\u201d State Sen. Jim Boyd said.<\/p>\n Any solution from lawmakers will require the approval of Gov. Ron DeSantis.<\/p>\n Over the weekend, he suggested that younger Floridians could be best served with a health care more focused on paying for \u201ccatastrophic\u201d health coverage.<\/p>\n \u201cMost people, particularly under 50, what they really need is a catastrophic that\u2019s affordable. Where then they can pay whatever they\u2019re doing out of a health savings account. You know, most people outside of paying insurance premiums are not paying a lot,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n Colombia has recalled its ambassador to the United States amid an increasingly angry back-and-forth between U.S. President Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro.<\/p>\n Tensions increased Sunday when Trump called Petro \u201can illegal drug leader\u201d and \u201ca lunatic\u201d after Petro had accused the U.S. government of killing a Colombian citizen in a Sept. 16 strike on a boat the U.S. said was allegedly carrying drugs. Petro said one of those aboard was a fisherman named Alejandro Carranza and that his boat was malfunctioning when hit.<\/p>\n American naval ships, fighter jets and drones are deployed in the region for what the administration has described as an \u201carmed conflict\u201d with drug cartels.<\/p>\n \u201cThe United States has invaded our national territory, fired a missile to kill a humble fisherman, and destroyed his family, his children,\u201d Petro wrote on his social media.<\/p>\n Colombia\u2019s Foreign Affairs Ministry said Monday that Ambassador Daniel Garc\u00eda-Pe\u00f1a Jaramillo was already in Bogota.<\/p>\n On Sunday,\u00a0U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the latest U.S. strike on a vessel that was allegedly carrying \u201csubstantial amounts of narcotics.\u201d<\/p>\n