THE HILL – Health insurance premiums are rising in 2026 into the “even more unaffordable” range, with average increases on Affordable Care Act exchange plans of roughly 30 percent.
We are paying more than ever for health insurance, yet wait times keep increasing and access to care continues to deteriorate.
That is not a mystery. It is the predictable result of policies that empower systems over people.
Democrats’ instinctive response to rising premiums is to revive expired Obamacare subsidies.
That instinct is understandable politically but indefensible economically and medically. Republicans dither, offering sops to media hysteria like $1,500 payments.
Congress already decided the subsidy issue. The “enhanced” Affordable Care Act premium tax credits enacted to compensate for COVID lockdowns expired by law at the end of last year, although the original subsidies remain in place. Calls to restore the enhanced credits are not about lowering costs; they are about hiding expenses and scoring political points.
To understand why this debate keeps repeating, it helps to explain how ObamaCare subsidies actually work. Most Americans never see the money and therefore never experience the perverse incentives our health care system creates.
Under ObamaCare, premium subsidies are advanceable, refundable tax credits tied to the price of a government-defined benchmark insurance plan.
Consumers never receive these dollars — instead, the federal government sends the money directly to insurance companies each month, leaving enrollees responsible for a small remaining share of the premium, plus copays.
This structure, explained in the Kaiser Family Foundation’s overview of premium tax credits and the Congressional Research Service description, ensures that Washington — that is, taxpayers — will pay insurers’ higher (and higher) premium rates …
