Many of those facing the most substantial dollar increases are middle-income Americans who buy health insurance through the marketplaces set up by the government’s Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.
Expanded subsidies for those insured under the ACA expired on Dec. 31—the central battle in last year’s record-long government shutdown. That shutdown ended with no resolution on the subsidies, and lawmakers haven’t passed legislation to revive them.
Now, the newly calculated insurance bills are coming due, and Americans are having to figure out how to pay up, or go without.
Lenny and Mandee Wilson, who are 47 years old and live in Charleston, W.Va., paid $255 a month last year for a low-end ACA plan. Late last year, they learned their bill would be going up to $2,155 a month, a sum nearly triple their monthly mortgage payment of about $760.