The United States government is back open after a record-long 43-day shutdown.
Questions, however, still remain surrounding tax subsidies for the Affordable Health Care Act, which will run out at the end of the year.
Also known as Obamacare, millions of Americans could be paying more and more for health insurance in 2026.
Lawmakers in Washington will be asking themselves if they can extend the ACA and, if they don’t, will they be able to stem the rising costs while keeping Americans insured?
“I’m a recipient of the Marketplace insurance… I was seeing an increase in Marketplace as well, so I’m sure it’s going to be going up again this year.” Anthony West said.
With health care costs potentially going up, it could have people passing on coverage or a basic visit to the doctor.
“The cost often deters people even if it’s just a doctor’s appointment,” Grace Harrison said. “It’s not just financial cost, it’s taking time off of work that they may not have.”
Others across the country are also worried that they’ll wake up one day to find out that they have lost their health insurance.
“You look around, people are having a hard enough time as it is with the government shutdown and all of these tariffs that are going to be placed on a lot of these imports and exports,” West said. “So I’m pretty sure a lot of these people are going to be losing health care, and I’m sure a lot of them are concerned.”
In an interview with 10 News, U.S. Representative Ben Cline said the ACA is anything but affordable and wants to take big insurance companies out of the equation.
“I want - and what most of us here on Capitol Hill want - is to find solutions that long-term lower the cost of insurance, by providing competition in the marketplace and alternatives to these high-dollar policies,” Cline said.
A future vote on extending the subsidies isn’t set in stone, but it could happen mid-December.
It would need 60 Senate votes, including at least 13 Republicans, to pass.
Cline is hoping to find a different solution.
“I want them and their ideas put forward because to get to 60 votes, to change the ACA, which has not been affordable, we are going to have to have that bipartisan cooperation,” Cline said.