{"id":113471,"date":"2026-01-07T00:55:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T00:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/113471\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T00:55:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T00:55:15","slug":"with-federal-subsidies-gone-americans-face-higher-healthcare-premiums-or-the-risk-of-losing-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/113471\/","title":{"rendered":"With federal subsidies gone, Americans face higher healthcare premiums or the risk of losing coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON \u2013 As the clock struck midnight ushering in 2026, millions of Americans faced soaring health insurance costs after critical Affordable Care Act<\/a> subsidies expired.<\/p>\n

The enhanced federal tax credits that helped lower premiums were a key issue during the 43-day federal government shutdown last October. The shutdown resulted from a political standoff between Democrats and Republicans over funding and policy priorities. <\/p>\n

When the shutdown ended, no agreement was reached to extend the subsidies beyond December 31, 2025.<\/p>\n

James Bonner, 64, of Houston\u2019s Sunnyside neighborhood, relies on his ACA health insurance to survive. He is awaiting a double lung transplant.<\/p>\n

James Bonner, 64, of Houston\u2019s Sunnyside neighborhood, relies on his ACA health insurance to survive. He is awaiting a double lung transplant. (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

Before the subsidies expired, Bonner paid roughly $9 a month for his coverage, he told KPRC 2\u2019s Gage Goulding<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Now, he has received a notice that his premium will jump to about $135, a 1,400% increase.<\/p>\n

That increase is unaffordable for Bonner, a former NASA employee who worked on projects like the Hubble Space Telescope. <\/p>\n

Living in a low-income neighborhood and relying solely on his Social Security check, which is just over $1,000 a month, Bonner faces the risk of losing his insurance and potentially his life-saving transplant.<\/p>\n

His story, albeit much more severe, is one that is carbon copied to the lives of millions of Americans from coast to coast. <\/p>\n

An analysis<\/a> by the Urban Institute and Commonwealth Fund last September projected that the expiration of these subsidies could lead about 4.8 million Americans to drop their coverage in 2026.<\/p>\n

Democratic Congressman Al Green<\/a>, who represents Texas\u2019 9th District, has vowed to help Bonner and millions of others struggling with higher healthcare costs.<\/p>\n

The House of Representatives is set to vote on a bill that would extend the ACA subsidies for another three years. The bill gained momentum after four centrist Republicans broke party lines to support it, but still faces a long, rough road ahead. <\/p>\n

Congress returned for the second session of the 119th Congress on Jan. 5, 2026.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 As the clock struck midnight ushering in 2026, millions of Americans faced soaring health insurance costs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2067,11323,21631,18830,5133,405,2889,2244,1822,56,58,57,251,50129,229,1911,287,50128,12977],"class_list":{"0":"post-113471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-affordability","9":"tag-affordable-care-act","10":"tag-congressman-al-green","11":"tag-cost-of-living","12":"tag-democrat","13":"tag-harris-county","14":"tag-health-insurance","15":"tag-healthcare","16":"tag-hospital","17":"tag-houston","18":"tag-houston-headlines","19":"tag-houston-news","20":"tag-local-news","21":"tag-lung-transplant","22":"tag-medical","23":"tag-nasa","24":"tag-politics","25":"tag-republcian","26":"tag-sunnyside"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}