{"id":378515,"date":"2025-11-14T14:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T14:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/378515\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T14:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T14:38:10","slug":"health-insurance-premiums-are-rising-so-fast-that-millions-may-be-uninsured","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/378515\/","title":{"rendered":"Health insurance premiums are rising so fast that millions may be uninsured."},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 lg8ac56 lg8ac55 xkp0cg1\">Unless Congress acts in the next month, up to four million Americans are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/system\/files\/2024-12\/59230-ARPA.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">expected<\/a> to become uninsured, because they can no longer afford their health insurance premiums.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">While Congress has finally reached a deal to end the longest government shutdown on record, during which Democrats pressed Republicans to lower people\u2019s health insurance costs, Democrats relented without a compromise that would avert the country\u2019s imminent health care policy catastrophe. The two sides now need to agree on a deal to prevent the millions of Americans who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act\u2019s marketplaces from facing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/health\/2025\/10\/24\/obamacare-premiums-rise-30-percent\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">an average 30 percent premium hike<\/a> next year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key takeaways from our interviews with the new uninsured<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"duet--article--unordered-list _1agbrixi _739u100 xkp0cg1 _1lbxzst7\">\n<li class=\"_739u101\">Vox spoke with a group of people from a variety of backgrounds \u2014 a young gig worker, a father and husband, an early retiree, and a middle-aged entrepreneur \u2014 who are facing extremely difficult choices as their health care costs climb.<\/li>\n<li class=\"_739u101\">They could be forced to take shortcuts on their health: skipping appointments, stockpiling medicines, and possibly going uninsured altogether.<\/li>\n<li class=\"_739u101\">They feel the politicians who could fix this for them are more worried about scoring political points than fixing the US health system.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">If lawmakers don\u2019t act, health insurance premiums are poised to climb five or six times what some policyholders paid just last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kff.org\/affordable-care-act\/state-indicator\/marketplace-enrollment\/?currentTimeframe=0&amp;sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More than 20 million people<\/a> buy insurance on the marketplaces, and now, many are experiencing sticker shock as they realize their insurance options are much more expensive or that they have lost all of their assistance and are completely priced out of medical coverage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">Democrats have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/msnbc\/news\/congress-shutdown-fight-health-care-rcna243626\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">forced<\/a> Republicans to agree to a vote on restoring people\u2019s health insurance subsidies by mid-December as a condition of ending the shutdown. Bipartisan negotiations are happening in the House and Senate to figure out a deal to reauthorize the subsidies and bring down costs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">But lawmakers are running out of time; open enrollment for coverage ends on December 15. To understand the human stakes of these policy negotiations, I spoke with four people who are facing significant ACA premium hikes and are now considering going uninsured.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">Hussein Cabrera, 45, is, ironically enough, an IT contractor for a health insurance company in South Carolina, but because he\u2019s not technically a full-time employee, he doesn\u2019t receive coverage through his work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">He, his wife, and their daughter have gotten insurance through the ACA for the past few years. Last year, the family paid $53 for a plan that covered Cabrera\u2019s wife, who has an autoimmune disease, while he and his daughter were on a separate, even cheaper plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">But when he logged onto <a href=\"http:\/\/healthcare.gov\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HealthCare.gov<\/a> this year, he couldn\u2019t believe it: His wife\u2019s plan now costs $285 per month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">\u201cI stopped right there. I didn\u2019t even look for my policy,\u201d he told me. He knew they would struggle to afford her plan alone. Instead, his first stop was the internet. He researched the feasibility of <a href=\"http:\/\/ce-cost-sharing-ministries-medical-bills\" rel=\"nofollow\">cost-sharing ministries<\/a>, which he ultimately decided were a bad deal, and crowdsourced other solutions on Reddit, where he posted his dilemma in r\/healthinsurance, a subreddit forum. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/HealthInsurance\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">There<\/a>, he encountered dozens of similar posts from people trying to figure out alternative ways to pay for medical bills or who took the chance on going uninsured.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">Cabrera is now contemplating a previously unthinkable choice: To keep his wife\u2019s ACA plan, ensure her access to her doctors and medicines, but let coverage lapse for him and his daughter. The family can no longer afford a second plan for them now that his wife\u2019s coverage is five times as costly as it was in 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">Cabrera knows the risks he\u2019s courting, but, he told me, he just doesn\u2019t feel like he has a choice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">\u201cIf I cannot get insurance, or if either of us, we\u2019re gonna go back to the old way of doing things. We\u2019re gonna have to go to the emergency room for stupid shit,\u201d Cabrera said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">When I spoke to Cabrera, he expected to go uninsured, along with his daughter, but he won\u2019t make a final decision until next month. Until then, Cabrera is planning to schedule a bunch of appointments and refill his prescriptions before the end of the year, which is when his current coverage runs out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">What\u2019s the plan after that? \u201cPray and see what happens,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">Ian is 36; living in San Antonio, Texas; and working part-time while also helping take care of his parents, who have serious medical conditions. He has been enrolled in the ACA for most of the past decade, because his employment has been temporary or contractual \u2014 working multiple jobs at any given time \u2014 including at a local grocery chain and in community relations for the NBA\u2019s San Antonio Spurs, which he told me he just wrapped up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">Last year, he said, he was able to sign up for a health insurance plan that cost him less than $100 per month and had no deductible. But when he checked on next year\u2019s prices, the cheapest plan he could find was $282 per month and came with a $10,000 deductible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">\u201cDo I really need health insurance at this point?\u201d he said when we spoke by phone recently.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">But he does need it. Ian told me that he has had asthma for most of his life and, while he\u2019s generally kept it under control, a recent Covid-19 infection has made the condition a daily struggle. He needs medical attention. For each inhaler, Ian might pay <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodrx.com\/albuterol?srsltid=AfmBOookWF6yUzX0pnaxM4Rm8Z8_CZOoX01LqSKZHowLyvlaxmaEr-gY\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$50 or more<\/a> without insurance \u2014 but without an inhaler, his symptoms could get worse and cause permanent damage to his lungs. He coughs several times while we are on the phone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">I asked Ian whether he\u2019ll sign up for health insurance on the marketplace, as he has in the past, or if he\u2019ll go without. \u201cAt this point, I\u2019m 50-50, to be honest,\u201d Ian told me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">Texas, his home state, <a href=\"https:\/\/publichealthwatch.org\/2025\/06\/07\/uninsured-rates-by-state\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has the highest uninsured rate<\/a> in the country, and, in an ironic twist, this might work in his favor if he decides to join the ranks. Because so many people don\u2019t have health insurance, the state\u2019s health care providers strive to provide access to some basic services at a lower cost. He\u2019s contemplating whether to use discount drug sites like GoodRx for his albuterol for his asthma; the local hospital system in San Antonio also has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.universityhealth.com\/patient-visitor-resources\/patients\/financial-assistance-health-coverage\/carelink\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a discount patient price program<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">But all of his options now are suboptimal. \u201cHealth care needs to be fixed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">Samuel, 47, was a long-time government contractor who had access to good health insurance \u2014 about $300 a month for a plan with a low, $450 deductible \u2014 through his work before he decided to start his own business in the past year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">But after he went out on his own, it was much harder to find an affordable option. When he logged onto the ACA marketplaces last year, Samuel \u2014 who asked me to only use his first name for privacy while sharing personal financial details \u2014 signed up for a plan that cost $480 per month with a $7,500 deductible. It wasn\u2019t great, but it was doable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">This month, Samuel logged onto the ACA marketplaces, and the only plans that covered the doctors and hospitals in his local area were both more expensive \u2014 now up to $580 per month \u2014 and with worse benefits. The deductible would be $8,500.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">Samuel is a single guy with no serious health problems; he\u2019s considering whether he could risk going uninsured. But the current moment is forcing people like him to consider some ghoulish scenarios. He reviewed some of the detailed benefits documents for next year\u2019s plans, and he said that, even if he ended up in a car accident, he might not hit his new deductible and end up paying the whole bill out of pocket anyway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">But at the same time, he worries about hospitals being unwilling to treat him if he\u2019s uninsured. (Federal law requires hospitals to care for someone in an emergency, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hipaajournal.com\/north-carolina-baptist-hospital-swedish-american-hospital-emtala\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">anecdotal reports<\/a> of hospitals refusing to follow that rule are not hard to find.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">\u201cI don\u2019t trust the hospital,\u201d he told me. \u201cMost likely, the way I\u2019m looking at it now, because a hospital could potentially deny me service for not having health insurance, that basically forces my hand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">It\u2019s another impossible dilemma foisted upon him by the US health system. For now, he\u2019s planning to pick up extra work to cover the cost of his health insurance plan. But he\u2019s hoping Congress will act and bring plan costs down before the open-enrollment window closes<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">When I called Steven, a retiree in his late 50s who lives in New Jersey, he was waiting on an HVAC worker to come and fix his furnace. It had died last week, and, with colder weather on the way, the water pipes were going to freeze soon. \u201cHealth care is only part of my aggravation,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">Up until last year, his family of three was covered by his wife\u2019s insurance, provided by the large corporation for which she worked. It was $500 a month with a low deductible. But then, the company shut down her division, she decided to retire, and the couple and their son enrolled in the same plan on the state\u2019s ACA marketplaces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">They couldn\u2019t get such a great deal, but they found something usable: about $1,000 per month \u2014 pricey, but they were able to keep all of their doctors, who were in network. Their deductible was about $4,600.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">But next year, their current plan would cost $2,700 every month to keep, and their deductible would be higher \u2014 up to $5,300. They could consider dropping their college-aged son off the plan, but he would struggle to afford health insurance on his own, and it would only save his parents $300 a month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">Steven says he feels trapped. Given their age, he and his wife don\u2019t feel they can afford to go without insurance. But they\u2019re now going to have to pull money out of their retirement accounts to cover the cost of their health plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">\u201cWe cannot wing it and not have health insurance,\u201d Steven said. \u201cI\u2019m spending a lot of money that I really do not have on health care.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">He\u2019s done the math. If he kept his same plan, paid all of the premiums, and paid the maximum out-of-pocket costs, he could spend $50,000 on health care out of pocket \u2014 even with a health insurance plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 lg8ac5a xkp0cg1\">\u201cIt kinda seems like the two political parties want to be right and not care about people,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unless Congress acts in the next month, up to four million Americans are expected to become uninsured, because&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":378516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[210,1141,1142,153,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-378515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-policy","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115548566846591437","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378515","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=378515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}