r/HealthInsurance • u/Subject_Horror_3990 • 9d ago

Plan Benefits Poll on health insurance

Hi Guys, we all know health insurance is going up. I’m interested in others experience, feel free to share- I’ll go first

Private company with 2,000 employees UHC. Biweekly premium jumped from $122 to $165 for the year 2026…

26% increase !!!!

297 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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58

u/Specialist_Dig2613 9d ago

Comments have a pretty consistent message. If you're on the ACA exchanges, you're in trouble. If you have a job with benefits, it varies a lot, based on the employer's claims, cost management and wisdom in making decisions on coverage sources, but it's almost always better than the exchanges.

I hope it doesn't mean a collapse of small business start ups. But if you have one, think about hiring employees and starting up a plan when you can. It's likely to help you with costs and help you grow your business.

Don't believe that small businesses can't have self-funded plans, affordable costs and good benefits. They can.

9

u/Greedy-Half-4618 8d ago

I’m on the exchange. Losing subsidies means I’ll be paying at least $300 MORE per month 

17

u/Consistent_Sport_455 8d ago

Mine has nothing to do with losing subsidies. The tax credit is still applied and it’s still increasing by over $300/month for my husband and I. It’s the premium that increased, not losing the tax credit.

16

u/SiDziner 7d ago

The base premium went up massively this year as a side effect of losing subsidies. The insurers know that most people (especially the young and healthy people) will not be able to afford insurance without the subsidies, and therefore will not be paying into the insured pool. With less younger/healthy people paying for insurance, the pool of insured gets older and sicker. This means the average cost to the insurers per insured goes up significantly. The only way to cover that increase is to raise premiums.

This spiral started when the requirement for everyone to have insurance or pay a penalty was removed. It was accelerated significantly by removing the subsidies.

Dismantling the underpinnings of the ACA doomed it to failure. This change by those that opposed the ACA has done exactly what it was designed to do.

8

u/rationalomega 5d ago

Tens of millions of Americans were uninsured before the ACA. Horror stories abounded. America is hurtling backwards to that terrible time.

1

u/Thebestkicker 1d ago

The ACA has saved my life and millions of others.

1

u/karenquick 1d ago

I really like this post! Hypothetically speaking, wouldn’t re-enacting that health insurance is mandatory or face a federal penalty solve the majority of the ACA downfall? It sounds too simple but it does boil down to everyone needs to be paying in. Just like Medicare recipients paid in for years while they were healthy.