Washington D.C — Millions of Americans are paying twice as much for their health insurance premiums as last year, and it’s congressional Republicans’ fault. The Nation reports that their decision to end health care tax credits is devastating working Americans, many of whom can no longer afford the premiums or deductibles needed to afford health coverage they rely on.
Their elimination of health care tax credits comes on top of historic Medicaid cuts, which are being implemented with the new Republican Medicaid rule that goes even further and could rip coverage away from people with serious and chronic illnesses – all to fund tax breaks for billionaires.
“Congressional Republicans ended health care tax credits and millions of Americans are paying for it with higher premiums, skyrocketing deductibles, and missed medical treatments,” said Unrig Our Economy Campaign Director Leor Tal. “Billionaires got tax breaks and working families got higher health care costs.”
The Nation: Republicans Blocked Healthcare Subsidies—and Now More Americans Are Going Uninsured
Key Points:
- ReShonda Young, a 51-year-old owner of a health and nutrition supplement store in Waterloo, Iowa, has been self-employed for over a decade. Out of the last ten years, she had employer-based insurance for just one—through her late husband, who passed away three years ago. Every other year, she’s turned to the Affordable Care Act to get health coverage. “I’m really dependent on the marketplace,” she said.
- Then she got a letter last year saying that her premium for her plan would be increasing to $592 a month—a 530 percent increase. “I’m like, ‘Yeah I cannot do that,’” she said.
- In 2021, Congress expanded premium tax credits that reduced costs for over 20 million people who, like Young, obtained their health insurance on ACA marketplaces but didn’t previously qualify for the assistance. The subsidies helped more than double enrollment while they were in effect and helped bring the share of Americans covered by health insurance to record highs. But the expansion was set to expire at the end of 2025.
- But “the Republican leadership blocked them.” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries successfully brought forward a discharge petition to force a bill extending the tax credits onto the House floor, only to have the measure fail in the Senate.
- After Republicans failed to act and the subsidies evaporated this year, premiums have skyrocketed, forcing many Americans to downgrade their coverage. The share of people selecting bronze plans—the lowest tier, with smaller provider networks and the highest out-of-pocket costs—grew substantially, from 30 percent of marketplace enrollees to 40 percent. “People have responded by transitioning to lower-premium plans to try to save money and at least get some kind of coverage, but it’s often difficult for them to get the care that they need when they need it,” said Claire Heyison, health insurance and marketplace senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
- Meanwhile, the share of people who dropped their coverage altogether has shot up. Nearly 3 million fewer people enrolled in and paid for marketplace coverage in 2026 than in 2025, a 13 percent decrease—the largest drop in enrollment since the marketplaces opened up in 2014. Previously, declines in enrollment have “usually been in the low single percentages,” noted Heyison.
- The reason for the drop-off “is not rocket science,” Wright said. After huge cost increases in the wake of the expiration of the expanded premium tax subsidies, “It’s not a surprise that millions of people dropped coverage and millions more downgraded.”
- Young knew she couldn’t forfeit coverage altogether, especially after being diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago. “Not having insurance is not an option,” she said. “But the plan that I had also was not an option.” She reached out to insurance brokers to see if she could get an employer plan, but she was told she wouldn’t be able to get anything better than what she could find on the marketplace. So she downgraded to a bronze plan that has a $7,500 deductible and $10,000 out-of-pocket max.
- Her co-pays are also more expensive. She now pays $100 every time she goes to the doctor, up from about $20 on her previous plan. “The goal is not to have to go to the doctor,” she said. Her strategy hasn’t worked out so well this year, however. She’s been dealing with a retina problem that required two laser surgeries and a half dozen doctor visits this spring, costing her about $600.
- To absorb the extra costs without her late husband’s income to help her, she’s had to make “lots of changes and big decisions,” she said. After 20 years of being a landlord, she’s been forced to sell some properties to make sure “I’ve got enough of a cushion to be able to cover my health.”
- “It is tragic that we are rolling back the progress that we showed was possible,” Wright said.
- For her part, ReShonda Young has a message for the people in charge who left her with so few health insurance options. “I just wish that our elected representatives, when they’re making decisions, understood and could see the real people behind all the decisions that they’re making,” Young said. “You guys are playing politics with our lives.”
To learn more about the campaign, visit UnrigOurEconomy.com or contact press@unrigoureconomy.com
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About Unrig Our Economy
Unrig Our Economy is a national campaign to fix the rules of our economy to make it work for working people. We know that when the middle class does well, all of us do well — which is why we’re fighting on behalf of working Americans and holding corporations, their wealthy executives, and the politicians who enable them accountable.