Floridians sign up for Obamacare unsure if program will survive under Trump [View all]

More than 12 million Americans got their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act in 2017 when a Republican bill to scrap the program fell two U.S. Senate votes short.

With more than 21.4 million Americans now insured through federal marketplace plans, the future of the program is again in doubt with the return of Donald Trump to the White House and a GOP majority in both the U.S. House and Senate.

Expanded federal subsidies put in place during the pandemic to make insurance premiums more affordable — and in some cases free — for millions of lower-income Americans expire at the end of 2025. If not extended by the new Congress, an estimated 4 million people could lose health insurance in 2026, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates.

Also at risk is a rule change adopted in May that opened the Affordable Care Act in 2025 to undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children but have been eligible for benefits like schooling since the creation in 2012 of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Significant changes to the program would have a big impact in Florida, where 4.2 million residents are enrolled this year — the most in the nation. With the 2025 enrollment period already underway, program administrators are fielding questions from Floridians fearful that their insurance will be canceled, said Xonjenese Jacobs, director of Florida Covering Kids & Families, a nonprofit based at the University of South Florida that coordinates enrollment across the state.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2024/11/13/floridians-sign-up-obamacare-unsure-if-program-will-survive-under-trump/