{"id":348816,"date":"2025-11-01T21:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T21:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/348816\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T21:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T21:13:11","slug":"attorney-explains-shutdowns-toll-on-health-insurance-snap-federal-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/348816\/","title":{"rendered":"Attorney explains shutdown\u2019s toll on health insurance, SNAP, federal workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 As the federal government shutdown approaches the one-month mark, the effects are already being felt by everyday Americans, says government law attorney Chris Hand during our weekly segment, Hand on Government on This Week In Jacksonville<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn November 1st, the exchange opens for new health insurance plans for people who buy that through the ACA exchange but because of the extended subsidies and enhanced subsidies passed through COVID have not been extended to this point. Most Americans who go into the exchange will see massive increases in their health insurance premiums. In some cases 200 \u2013 300 per-cent,\u201d Hand explained.<\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/b>A Florida senior gets about $2 a day in SNAP benefits. If it expires, she says she won\u2019t have food next month<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

He emphasized that these premium hikes are a direct outgrowth of the shutdown, impacting Americans \u201cin some dire ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, Hand highlighted the impact on food assistance programs. \u201cAs of November 1st, most states around the country and the federal government no longer offering what\u2019s called SNAP assistance, supplemental nutrition assistance programs. Some know it as food stamps, but for 1 in 8 Americans, that is the difference between eating and not eating.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE: <\/b>Judges order Trump administration to use emergency reserves for SNAP payments during the shutdown<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

The shutdown also affects federal employees and services. \u201cFederal government employees, you know, with a few exceptions, are not being paid right now, including members of the military. That\u2019s a huge impact, including right here in Northeast Florida. And it doesn\u2019t just impact people who are those employees and their families, but impacts services as well. For example, federal air traffic controllers are not being paid right now. As a result, folks are not necessarily coming to work. That means slowdowns in air travel. So we\u2019re beginning now to see a cascade of impacts from this shutdown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hand noted that both sides in Congress remain dug in, but mounting pressure from these impacts on everyday Americans may force a return to negotiations. <\/p>\n

\u201cI do think it\u2019s going to be these impacts on everyday Americans, on health insurance, food benefits, other, issues like that that do force congressional negotiators back to the table to try to find some sort of solution before the impacts on Americans are even worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

To watch the full interview and hear our conversation with Chris Hand about the government shutdown and what it means for everyday Floridians, tune in to This Week in Jacksonville on Sunday at 9 a.m.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 As the federal government shutdown approaches the one-month mark, the effects are already being felt…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":348817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,69,3188,723,7310,98499,6974,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-348816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-shutdown","14":"tag-snap","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115476509808526111","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}