How a Health Insurance Shortfall in Georgia Could Play Out in the Midterms
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John Chakowsky is at his computer, scrolling through the options for health insurance in Georgia.
I'm plugging in. I live in Fulton County, so I'm in downtown Atlanta. Here's my date of birth and then my income.
Chakowsky is an independent insurance broker, and he's giving us a closer look at what he calls a double whammy. Premiums for insurance that complies with the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, have gone up. And federal tax credits that would have helped people pay for them expired on January 1st. Tchaikovsky saw the effects of this on prices and on the people he helps find insurance.
Seeing the rates increase year over year, That's kind of par for the course. Seeing the rates jump overnight from one year to the next, that significant, you know, 30 to 40 percent, that was a shock to the system. Most people were not expecting the shift to be that dramatic. And this last open enrollment, like, eyes were wide open. And people in tears saying, I can't pay for this. I'm going to have to go uninsured.
Some subsidies are still in place, but Congress allowed enhanced Obamacare subsidies doled out during the COVID-19 pandemic to lapse, a fight so bitter it led to a government shutdown over whether or not to extend them. Providing those subsidies obviously comes at a cost for the U.S. government. A Congressional Budget Office analysis from September found that a three-year extension for them would have cost the federal government roughly $90 billion. But losing those subsidies has been tough for a lot of the people Tchaikovsky works with. He calls the latest period of health insurance signups the hardest one he's seen in his 17 years on the job.
What health insurance challenges are Georgians facing in 2025?
The health research nonprofit KFF estimates that on average, the expired subsidies mean that annual premium payments for ACA marketplace enrollees will more than double, from an average of $888 in 2025 to roughly $1,900 this year. Tchaikovsky says that in a few cases, he saw families' premiums triple. A lot of people were flat out upset, devastated in some cases. I'm Sabrina Sonecki, and this is What's News Sunday. Over the last few weeks, I've been reporting on how the rising cost of living could determine who controls Congress next year. In this episode, we talk to some of the Georgians navigating higher health care costs and to the pollsters who work with The Wall Street Journal to tell us what those costs might mean ahead of statewide primary runoff elections coming up this Tuesday.
This is The Cost of Living Election, Part 3. According to the Georgia Recorder, the Peach State has seen a 37% drop in Affordable Care Act enrollment since the start of last year. That represents more than half a million Georgians in a state of roughly 11.5 million. And data from the U.S. Census shows that a few years ago, Georgia had one of the highest rates of residents under 65 without insurance at 13.6%. Joey Bernard is one of them. He would have gotten insurance through Georgia Access this year, but it was too expensive.
The prices we were seeing on the Georgia Access website was going to be about a third to a little under half of our monthly budget and everything. And that's, I couldn't justify it.
Bernard is 40, and he lives with his wife and daughter in the city of Ball Ground. It's in Cherokee County, which isn't far from Atlanta, though far enough from that urban center so as to be solidly Republican.
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