Insurance premiums rise for ACA enrollees
Dr. Dan Derksen interviewed
TUCSON, Ariz. - The Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium subsidies expired at the end of 2025, affecting the vast majority of enrollees who relied on reduced health insurance costs.
More than 400,000 Arizonans enrolled in ACA plans are seeing their premiums rise this month, with some costs doubling. The House is expected to vote this month on a Democratic proposal to extend the subsidies for three years, but success is not guaranteed.
Adena Hope Bank said she had been paying $731 per month for insurance under the ACA. Starting this month, she’s paying $1,089 per month.
“I’m more reluctant to get health care and to ask for help now,” Bank said.
The premium increases are forcing Bank to sacrifice aspects of her health care.
“I’ve made a commitment that I am going to do everything I can to stay away from doctors because if I go, that’s more money and etcetera, etcetera,” she said.
Bank said she’s worried the cost increases will impact her health.
“I’m a fairly healthy person, but I’m also 63 years old, and so things can happen to me health-wise that maybe wouldn’t happen at 30 or 40,” she said.
Dr. Daniel Derksen, director of the Arizona Center of Rural Health and a health care policy expert, said Bank is not alone. He expects many to forgo primary and preventive care, and some to even go uninsured.
“My analysis is that about 100,000 to 125,000 Arizonans won’t be able to afford the higher premiums that they’ll be forced to pay because they no longer get a tax credit to help them pay for that coverage,” Derksen said. Derksen said the impact will affect much more than just those individuals’ health.
“You don’t really save money by throwing people off of health insurance. You just shift who absorbs the cost – to individuals or their families, or to the clinics and hospitals that have to absorb that charity care, that uncompensated care,” he said.
Open enrollment ends Jan. 15 in Arizona, meaning there’s still time to switch coverage before being automatically renewed into the same plan.