Moreno-Guerrero is among the El Pasoans feeling the pinch of pricey plans from employers and the Affordable Care Act marketplace run by the federal government. Policy researchers attribute the rise in health insurance cost to medical services and pharmaceuticals becoming more expensive, the expiration of ACA tax credits and insurance companies expecting a higher proportion of sick people enrolled.<\/p>\n
Last year, more than 120,000 people in El Paso County were enrolled in the ACA, also known as Obamacare, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Most people who received health insurance through the ACA, designed for people who do not have employer-sponsored insurance, received tax credits, which lowered their premiums. Enrollees in El Paso paid an average premium of $38 after tax credits compared to $583 without credits.<\/p>\n
But Republican lawmakers rejected Democrat-led efforts last year to extend the credits because they object to the government\u2019s role in health care and claim the ACA is rife with fraud. The stalemate led to the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history.<\/p>\n
The House on Thursday approved a three-year extension of ACA tax credits, with 17 Republicans joining the Democrats to revive the legislation. U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz<\/a> of Edinburg was the only Texas Republican to vote in favor of the extension. The bill now faces a rocky road through the Senate.<\/p>\n \u201cThe challenge in the Senate is that there are not enough Republicans who would support a clean extension,\u201d U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said at a news conference Friday. \u201cI do think the American people need to pressure their senators about supporting a clean extension, but I do know that a small, bipartisan group of senators are working on reforms to the Affordable Care Act.\u201d<\/p>\n Senate Republicans have already said the version of the ACA legislation that passed in the House will not pass<\/a> in the Senate. Escobar said the Senate may use the bill as a vehicle to pass their own reform and urged El Pasoans to write to Sens. John Cornyn<\/a> and Ted Cruz<\/a> to extend tax credits.<\/p>\n The deadline to enroll in the federal marketplace is Jan. 15 for coverage starting Feb. 1.<\/p>\n Why is health insurance so expensive?<\/p>\n Health insurance providers set their premiums based on two main factors: the underlying cost of health care services and who they expect to use those services, said Elena Marks, who studies health policy at Rice University\u2019s Baker Institute. These two factors influence anyone who pays a premium, from employer-sponsored plans to ACA plans to Medicare.<\/p>\n The cost of health care services has increased at a higher rate than wage growth and general inflation as pharmaceutical prices go up, tariffs impact the supply change and rent and overhead costs become costlier, Marks said.<\/p>\n When health insurance becomes more expensive, healthy people will take the risk of going without health insurance, said Brian Sasser, a spokesperson for Episcopal Health Foundation. But people with chronic illnesses, such as cancer and heart disease, will pay more because they need health insurance to live, he said. This makes the proportion of sick people in the coverage pool bigger, which raises premiums for everyone \u2013 a process known as the \u201cdeath spiral\u201d in the insurance industry.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the Affordable Care Act was first passed, there was this assumption that young and healthy people didn\u2019t want health insurance, and it turns out that\u2019s not true,\u201d Marks said. \u201cThey do want health insurance, but the price point in which they say, \u2018Ooh, that\u2019s too much for me\u2019 comes sooner than for someone who anticipates the need for health care.\u201d<\/p>\n Hospitals may not love ACA plans because they don\u2019t pay providers as much as private plans, but they support ACA tax credits because some coverage is better than no coverage, which means providing uncompensated care, she said.<\/p>\n People shouldn\u2019t assume they can\u2019t afford health coverage until they at least look at other options, Marks stressed. Before getting discouraged, people should plug in information such as their income on healthcare.gov<\/a> to compare plans, she recommended.<\/p>\n How rising health insurance costs strain El Pasoans\u00a0<\/p>\n Moreno-Guerrero and her son get a checkup a few times a year. She sees a rheumatologist in El Paso twice a year for connective tissue disease, an autoimmune disease that she has stabilized. Her son, who has asthma, sees a pediatrician.<\/p>\n She pays for indemnity insurance through her employer, a national call center, which covers emergency room visits. That plus paying out of pocket for non-ER visits add up to less than what she would pay in premiums, she said. She purchases their medication in Ju\u00e1rez, where her son\u2019s inhaler costs as little as $3 compared to almost $65 in El Paso.<\/p>\n Ju\u00e1rez has long provided El Pasoans a cheaper alternative for medical care. Moreno-Guerrero recalled taking her sick daughter to Cl\u00ednica Santa Clara last year. The visit, which included IV treatment, cost less than $100, she said.<\/p>\n FROM THE ARCHIVES: Study: Internet medicine prices in Mexico 40% cheaper than online in US<\/a><\/p>\n El Paso resident Brenda Vargas said she enrolled in a private health insurance plan for the first time last year after she no longer qualified for Medicaid. For Vargas, whose 5-year-old son Renzo has autism, canceling health insurance was not an option.<\/p>\n Renzo sees a speech therapist and occupational therapist in addition to his primary care physician. Vargas, who has insurance with Oscar Health, now pays a premium of $280 per month compared to $24 per month last year.<\/p>\n Vargas said she struggled in the beginning to find health care providers who accepted her health insurance. Now that she\u2019s found them and trusts them, she doesn\u2019t want to switch to a different plan and risk searching for new in-network providers all over again.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to be budgeting more, spending less,\u201d Vargas said. \u201cI know I can afford it, but the high change caught me by surprise. Honestly, I just got to be cautious of my spending. If I want to go somewhere, I have to think twice. I know I will need that money for my insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n If her premium jumps again next year, she may start looking elsewhere, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cContinuity of care, being able to see the same doctor, see the same clinic, that\u2019s important to people and a factor when people are looking at health insurance,\u201d said Sasser, of the Episcopal Health Foundation.<\/p>\n A survey by the foundation found that more than half of Texans, even with record ACA enrollment last year, skipped health care<\/a> in some way because of costs. That could mean skipping a prescription or a diagnostic exam, Sasser said.<\/p>\n Health insurance is not simple to navigate, even when people already have it, he said.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/HealthCare.Gov_-e1767815549366-1024x531.png\")
Screenshot of the federal government\u2019s health insurance marketplace website. Open enrollment ends Jan. 15, 2026. (HealthCare.Gov)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Day-2-Pharmacy-2.jpg\")
Avenida Ju\u00e1rez is lined with pharmacies that cater to residents of Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez and to El Pasoans who cross the Santa Fe Bridge to find cheaper medication, often without needing a prescription. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sOCpR29g-e1768004991239-691x1024.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
Brenda and Renzo Vargas<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_0773-scaled-e1768004885186-835x1024.jpg\")
Erin Villarreal, access navigation program manager at Project Vida, helps El Pasoans enroll in the Affordable Care Act. (Courtesy of Project Vida)<\/p>\n