Adrienne Martin and her family are starting the new year without health insurance after being hit with a price increase they say they simply cannot afford.
The 47-year-old Texas mother learned that her monthly healthcare premium would jump in 2026 from what she called a manageable $630 to a staggering $2,400. Faced with the sudden increase, Martin said her family had no choice but to drop their coverage altogether.
Her husband relies on an IV medication to treat a blood-clotting disorder, a drug that costs about $70,000 a month without insurance. Knowing their coverage was about to expire, the family stockpiled the medication to get through the first few months of the year, reported the BBC.
“It would be like paying two mortgage payments,” Martin said of the new monthly cost. “We can’t pay $30,000 for insurance a year.”
Martin’s situation is becoming increasingly common. Millions of Americans are bracing for sharp increases in health care costs as subsidies tied to the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, expire.
Roughly 24 million people buy their health insurance through the ACA marketplace, and most have relied on tax credits to keep premiums affordable. Those subsidies were first introduced under former President Barack Obama in 2014 and were expanded during the Covid pandemic.
Lawmakers from both parties tried to extend the subsidies into 2026, but Congress remained deadlocked. A vote could still happen in the new year, but until then, many families are left with tough choices.
The fight over extending the subsidies led to the longest government shutdown in US history earlier this year, lasting more than 40 days. Democrats pushed for a three year extension costing $35 billion annually, while Republicans opposed extending the subsidies without spending cuts.
The shutdown ended after Democratic senators agreed to reopen the government in exchange for a promise that the Senate would vote on the issue. That vote never came, even as Democrats and four Republicans tried to bring it to the floor before the subsidies expired.
“I am pissed for the American people,” said New York Congressman Mike Lawler, one of the Republicans who backed extending the subsidies. “Everybody has a responsibility to serve their district, to their constituents. You know what is funny? Three-quarters of people on Obamacare are in states Donald Trump won.”
Without the subsidies, health care premiums could rise by an average of 114 percent, according to health policy nonprofit KFF. California mother Maddie Bannister is among those feeling the impact. After welcoming her second child, she saw her monthly premium jump from $124 in 2025 to $908 in 2026.
“So many people are going to choose to be uninsured because it’s cheaper to pay a penalty for being uninsured than it is to have healthcare,” she said.
For Bannister’s family, the higher costs mean delaying other plans. “We were saving for a home, and saving money for that is going to take way longer if we have to spend $11,000 a year on healthcare that we barely use.”
Others are switching coverage altogether. Stephanie Petersen, a 38 year old Illinois resident, recently moved from Medicaid to ACA coverage but is now reversing course as her premium jumps from $75 to $580 a month.
“I’m trying to stay optimistic but the way things have been going, I’m not hopeful,” she said. “Everyone should have affordable, good healthcare, and not have to jump through all these hoops.”
A vote on extending the subsidies is expected the week of January 5, when Congress returns. Until then, Martin will be among more than 27 million Americans without health insurance in 2026.
“We’re not low-income people, we make decent money, but we can’t afford $30,000 a year for insurance, that’s crazy,” she said. “We’ve done everything we’re supposed to do, we’ve worked our whole lives, we work hard, and we just get screwed. The whole system is a nightmare.”