Welcome to 2026: Congress Left for Vacation While Your Premiums Exploded
December 19th. That's when your elected officials packed their bags, kissed their families, and flew home for the holidays—knowing full well that ACA subsidies were about to expire and millions of Americans would wake up to insurance bills they cannot afford.
Happy New Year. Your premiums just spiked 114%. (Let me say that again for the people in the back: ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN PERCENT.)
24M people were enrolled in ACA plans in 2025. Up to 7.3M are expected to drop coverage because they simply can't pay. California saw new sign-ups fall 32%. 200k Mississippians are expected to walk away. Arkansas gets hit with a 69% increase on benchmark plans.
And who gets screwed the hardest? Young people. Black Americans. Cancer patients of all ages. The people already hanging on by a thread.
The current framework for the American Healthcare system was designed in 1973 when Nixon privatized health insurance with patients at the bottom of the funnel and profits at the top. Every denial, every delay, every "not medically necessary" letter is the machine working exactly as intended.
I survived brain cancer at 21. I've spent decades years watching this system chew up patients and spit out shareholders. I'm done being polite about it. And you should be too.
You have permission to be pissed.
You have permission to be furious that Congress treats your survival as a line item negotiation.
You have permission to demand better from every lawmaker who took your vote and then voted against your life. This is not about left or right. This is about alive or dead. Insured or bankrupt. Treated or denied.
19M cancer survivors. 150M Americans with chronic conditions. That's not a patient population. That's an unprecedented and historic voter bloc waiting to happen. And we're done waiting for permission to organize.
So, welcome to 2026: "The Year of the Patient" where the sick shall inherit the ballot.
Hey Mark Cuban — still don't "see the value" in meeting with patients? Here's 7.3M reasons to reconsider. Run these numbers through Cost Plus and tell me how transparency fixes a 114% premium hike. Spreadsheets don't vote. Patients do. We'll wait while you appear on another echo chamber podcast.
If this hits home, drop your horror story in the comments and tell me where you have seen it happen. How about a rage repost? Or tag a former colleague just for fun. Every impression pushes this in front of more people who deal with the same mess.
Are you new here? My condolences and my thanks. Follow along and stay loud with the rest of us. More voices means more pressure on a system that counts on silence.
SOURCE ➡️ https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5668719-aca-obamacare-subsidies-expire/