As insurers retreat from Obamacare, a working family is caught in the squeeze [View all]

Source: Washington Post

JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming — Like millions of other Americans, Stacy Newton turns to Healthcare.gov to shop for health insurance for her family. The Affordable Care Act website, according to the government, is where consumers are supposed to find “a menu of health insurance plans.”

But for the Newtons and many others in the country, next year’s menu is severely limited: There is only one company offering ACA plans here — and costs have risen steeply.

To continue health coverage for themselves and their two teenage children, the Newtons would have to pay an annual premium of $43,000 — about a third of their gross income. It is the price of the cheapest plan available to the family from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wyoming, the only ACA insurer left in Teton County.

This year, millions of American families that have relied on ACA, popularly known as Obamacare, are being squeezed on multiple sides: Premiums are rising, the covid-era subsidies that helped pay for those policies are shrinking, and there are fewer choices with insurers pulling out of some markets.

The squeeze here is a symptom of broader trouble in American health care. In western Wyoming and other regions, the expected rollback of enhanced subsidies has destabilized the economics of Obamacare, pushing some insurers to retreat from the government-supported market because it won’t be profitable.

That is leaving consumers like the Newtons with little choice but to buy a pricey, unsubsidized policy from a local monopoly.

Next year, the number of counties with only one company providing Obamacare will jump from 72 to 146, according the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. That number is expected to rise further if, as appears likely, Congress fails to renew the enhanced subsidies.

Newton and her husband, Derek, each run a small business — she is an independent sales representative, and he outfits vans — and like many entrepreneurs, they have relied on the ACA for health insurance. But this year, the price of their policy rose 34 percent, and the federal subsidy that helped them pay for it is slated to go away. At the same time, they know they will need medical care: Last year, Newton, 51, was diagnosed with chronic leukemia.

“It’s terrifying,” she said. “We’re not rich, we’re not poor. We’re a standard, middle-class family, and somehow now I can’t afford health insurance.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/12/21/obamacare-monopolies-subsidies/

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This of course, is the typical healthcare story we're going to see more of in the coming weeks....months, as well as people literally dying. Quite a few, because of their ignorant political beliefs.

Back in the 1970's, I was a young and foolish black kid, yet use to listen to the adults around me, occasionally speak of white folk hurting themselves to spite others.....mainly black folk. Naturally, I didn't understand such. Believed it was silly of one to harm his/herself, because of their hatred toward others, and now @67 years old, here we are.