Gol... Golden Age? Many Americans plan to cut food to afford ACA health insurance, new poll shows

[ck4829]

NEW YORK (AP) — Lately, Priscilla Brown has had to choose between properly managing her Type 2 diabetes and affording other necessities, like gas in her car. Some days, she takes half or a third of her prescribed insulin dose — just to stretch it out longer.

"Sometimes I don't even take my medicine," said the 48-year-old truck dispatcher in Orlando, Florida. "It's so much with insurance, it's crazy."

About 8 in 10 Americans, like Brown, who re-enrolled in Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage say their health care costs are higher this year, including about half who say their costs are "a lot" higher, according to a new survey from the health care research nonprofit KFF. A main reason for increased costs was the Dec. 31 expiration of enhanced tax credits that had offset premiums for most enrollees.

For Brown and others, those spiking costs are having real impacts on daily life. Of the 1,117 Americans surveyed who had ACA marketplace coverage in 2025, including those who dropped coverage or changed plans, about 55% said they're planning to deal with health care costs by cutting spending on food and other basic household needs.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/many-americans-plan-to-cut-food-to-afford-aca-health-insurance-new-poll-shows

[slightlv]

1. It's not just the ACA policy holders, either...

We're on Medicare Advantage, and not only are our rates higher but copays, etc., are higher... MUCH higher. A scan that was free as a service to elders, is now going to cost me $350 for my hubby to get. And that's just one example. We never before had to pay for ambulance but so far this year, thanks to hubby, I've had to pay $225 for each of 4 trips to the ER. And that's not even counting the mounting hospital costs I'm seeing in the online account.

Because he's so much more fragile, cardio-pulmonary wise than I am, I tend NOT to do anything other than office visits to get my pain med renewed. I finally gave in when my best friend around the corner called the ambulance on me 2 weeks ago when I thought I'd broken my knee. Turned out to be torn ligaments, cracked up and broken arthritis, and water on the knee... with a knee swollen to about 5 times normal size. I argued then that I couldn't afford another ambulance/ER trip, but I couldn't put any weight on the knee whatsoever... and it did scare me to think I might have broken it.

Between that and the ever increasing cost of groceries, I honestly don't know how we're going to stay alive in this world for long. Of course, that's probably what this admin wants... kill off all us old people. We're just useless eaters, anyway, right? /snark Never mind how long we've worked or what we did in our career... or for our neighborhoods, and society in general. We're old now, so we don't count. At least, that's what I feel coming from the nation these days.