Millions of Americans Face Healthcare Crisis as Subsidies Expire

Fri Jan 02 2026 09:59:40 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

With the expiration of ACA subsidies, many Americans, including families, are bracing for skyrocketing healthcare costs as they begin the New Year without coverage.

As subsidies provided through the Affordable Care Act expire, millions of Americans are set to see their healthcare costs soar. Families like Adrienne Martin's face unaffordable premiums, forcing them to go without necessary coverage. This article explores the implications of these rising costs amid ongoing political gridlock over healthcare reform.

Adrienne Martin and her family are starting the New Year off without healthcare.

The 47-year-old Texas mother had to make a difficult choice when she found out her monthly healthcare premium was increasing in 2026 from what she described as a manageable $630 (£467) to an unaffordable $2,400 (£1,781).

Her husband depends on an IV medication to treat a blood-clotting disease that costs $70,000 a month without insurance. Knowing their benefits would expire, the family stockpiled the drug to survive the first few months of the year.

It would be like paying two mortgage payments, she said of the new monthly price for healthcare. We can't pay $30,000 for insurance a year.

Ms Martin and her family are not the only ones facing this conundrum. Millions of Americans will see their healthcare bills skyrocket when these subsidies, which were provided through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, expire.

Some members of Congress on both sides of the aisle attempted to extend these subsidies into 2026, but Washington was gridlocked. A vote in the new year could offer hope, but until then, many like Ms Martin will have to live without insurance or see their bills steeply increase.

About 24 million Americans buy health insurance through the ACA marketplace, and the majority were used to receiving tax credits to lower the monthly price. Those tax credits were first introduced through former President Barack Obama's ACA in 2014 and were expanded during Covid.

The fight to extend the subsidies became the centre of the longest government shutdown in US history, which went on for more than 40 days earlier this year.

Without the subsidies, the monthly cost of healthcare could rise by 114% on average, according to health research non-profit KFF. A vote on the three-year extension of the ACA subsidies is now expected the week of 5 January when Congress returns to Washington.

Until then, Ms Martin will be one of the more than 27 million Americans without health insurance in 2026. This number is likely to grow, experts warn, as healthcare costs increase.

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.