Health insurance costs could spike, as bipartisan ACA deal looks less likely
Affordable Care Act subsidies that help millions of Americans pay for health insurance will expire in less than a month. But razor-thin margins in Congress, partisan division and competing plans are making it less and less likely that lawmakers will find a bipartisan deal to keep the assistance going - which means some households will probably face spiking insurance costs next year.
Senate Republicans promised Democrats a mid-December vote on a plan of their choice to extend the subsidies - which were implemented in 2021 to lower health care costs during the covid-19 pandemic - in exchange for support from a group of Democrats to end the government shutdown.
Around 24 million Americans use the federal marketplace to buy insurance. Most of those people now qualify for the subsidies, and the average benchmark monthly premium on Healthcare.gov has already gone up around 26 percent for 2026.
With time dwindling, Senate Democrats still haven’t released their plan, which would extend the subsidies for an unknown duration, and House Democrats are pushing for a three-year extension. But it’s clear there are not enough Senate Republicans willing to support any extension, especially without significant changes to address GOP concerns about fraud and whether subsidized plans will cover abortion.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/health-insurance-costs-could-spike-141257925.html