Thousands of people in South Florida may see their health insurance premiums rise sharply if Republicans and Democrats in Washington fail to negotiate a plan to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said.
The Democratic lawmaker from Weston said 200,000 people alone in her congressional district would be impacted. The deadline to extend the subsidies is Dec. 31.
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" Many of those people are not gonna be able to afford [the new premiums]," she told WLRN. "And that means that they're gonna be choosing between paying their rent or their groceries, or their health care premiums."
Wasserman Schultz's district covers most of southern Broward County and parts of northern Miami-Dade County.
Wasserman Schultz says Democrats want to negotiate. Republican leaders say they'll consider extending the extension after Democrats vote to end the government shutdown that began Oct. 1.
In the meantime, people enrolled in the plans are already being notified of hefty premium increases for 2026.
Open enrollment for health insurance begins Nov. 1.
The number of people who rely on Affordable Care Act health insurance has increased markedly since before the pandemic.
More than 24 million people — including 4.7 million Floridians — were enrolled in the marketplace plans in 2025, up from about 11 million in 2020, according to an analysis from the health care research nonprofit KFF.
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