Matt McGough

Bar chart shows the annual premium payments that ACA Marketplace enrollees are expected to contribute out-of-pocket for a benchmark silver plan (for a 55-year-old couple making $85,000) in 2025 vs. 2026 without the enhanced premium tax credits. The chart assumes 2025 benchmark premiums will grow by 18% for 2026. The chart ultimately shows that enrollees making above 400% of poverty will lose all financial assistance without the ACA’s enhanced premium tax credits.

Marketplace enrollees may see significant cost increases if the ACA’s enhanced premium tax credits expire.

Our new analysis breaks down what the changes could mean for both middle- and low-income households. Get the details: https://on.kff.org/4nzRd5X

Tariffs Are Driving 2026 Health Insurance Premiums Up President Trump has vowed to impose tariffs on a wide variety of goods from multiple countries. While consumers may expect the price of some imported goods to go up, what may be surprising is that the...

You might be surprised, but some insurers are expecting tariffs to drive up health insurance premiums in 2026.

www.kff.org/quick-take/t...

@kff.org

Pending Changes to Marketplace Plans Could Increase Cost-Sharing for Consumers | KFF This brief looks at changes to Marketplace plans recently finalized by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that may incentivize insurers to make their plans less generous. With less g...

To learn more about changes actuarial values and the effect on consumers, check out our new
@kff.org analysis here: www.kff.org/policy-watch...

What could this decrease mean for consumers? Those enrolled in a standard silver plan could see their deductibles rise by $1,750 or their coinsurance increase by 25 percentage points, and still be within the actuarial value range for standard silver plans.

Currently, plans must cover between 70-72% of health care costs to be considered a standard silver plan.

But under the new CMS rule (and OBBB as passed by the House), Marketplace plans could cover 66% of costs on average and still be considered a standard silver plan.

The percent of expected costs that a plan covers is called the actuarial value (AV). AVs vary by metal level.

For example, bronze plans cover on average 60% of expected costs, silver 70%, gold 80%, and platinum (90%).

In hitting these targets, insurers are given flexibility.

What could changes to the actuarial values (AVs) of ACA Marketplace plans, as finalized by CMS and passed by the House in the #OneBigBeautifulBill, mean for consumers?

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@kff.org

KFF graphic featuring a quote from Matt McGough, KFF Policy Analyst for the Program on the ACA and the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker. It says, “President Trump has vowed to imposed tariffs on a wide variety of goods from multiple countries. While consumers may expect the price of some imported goods to go up, what may be surprising is that these tariffs are already driving health insurance premiums up.”

⚡KFF’s @mattmcgough.bsky.social writes about how the tariff-driven expectation of higher prescription drug prices is causing some health insurance companies to increase premiums for 2026. #QuickTake on.kff.org/3FR7CTy

Tariffs drive some health plans to hike premiums Health insurers are serving notice that tariffs will drive up the premiums they charge next year.

Some insurers are raising health insurance premiums to account for tariffs in 2026. I spoke with @axios.com about how insurers may (or may not) be hedging their bets.

axios.com/2025/06/18/t...

kff.org/quick-take/t...

Early indications of the impact of the enhanced premium tax credit expiration on 2026 Marketplace premiums - Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker The vast majority of Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace enrollees receive a tax credit that lowers enrollees’ monthly payment for health insurance. Established as part of the ACA, premium tax credi...

Each year, health insurers submit filings to state regulators justifying premium rate changes for the #ACA Marketplace.

Early filings show insurers including an additional 4% average increase due to the expected expiration of #EnhancedPremiumTaxCredits.

www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/early-...

On Sunday, the House Budget Committee advanced the Republican budget reconciliation package that includes provisions that would reshape the ACA.

@kff.org has updated our resources examining the health provisions of the bill.

t.co/YQWMAEXnfv

CBO previously projected 32 million uninsured people in the US in the early 2030s, accounting for those losing coverage because of expiring tax credits.

Now CBO estimates the new reconciliation policies will increase the number of uninsured people by another 9.5M. That's a THIRTY PERCENT increase.

Great new visual from KFF breaking down the nearly 14 million additional people who'd be uninsured if the GOP is successful.

How Will the 2025 Budget Reconciliation Affect the ACA, Medicaid, and the Uninsured Rate? | KFF This analysis details the number of people who would become uninsured from policy changes in the ACA Marketplace and Medicaid. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that, taken together, these cha...

Over the weekend, Congressional Republicans proposed portions of a budget reconciliation package that could make significant changes to Medicaid and the ACA.

If passed, nearly 14 million people could become uninsured by 2034.

More from @kff.org here: www.kff.org/policy-watch...

As Republicans get more specific about Medicaid cuts, they will inevitably get more controversial as it becomes clear what the effects will be. That's always been true of health reform plans proposed by Democrats or Republicans.

Chronic, non-communicable diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide and make up 8 out of the top 10 leading causes of death in the US.

Across many of these diseases, the US has a higher burden of disease than countries of similar size and wealth.

t.co/hFSA43BoXy

While most adults have health insurance, over 1 in 4 adults delayed or did not get medical care due to cost in 2023, highlighting healthcare as a contributor to current affordability issues.

t.co/AMq8kNEj4R

Fifteen years out from passage of the ACA, Republicans are still fighting its expansion of Medicaid, which now covers 20 million people.

The ACA has had remarkable political staying power, for both proponents and opponents.

How has the quality of the U.S. healthcare system changed over time? - Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker Measuring quality in health care is complex: a vast number of metrics are used to monitor health system performance since there is no singular definition of quality, and data is often limited and dela...

How has the quality of the U.S. health system changed over time?

Check out @kff.org's latest analysis: www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collec...

Gene Hackman’s Absolute Power The star, whose work ranged from ‘The French Connection’ to ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ and far beyond, barely changed his look but constantly transformed himself.

The star, whose work ranged from ‘The French Connection’ to ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ and far beyond, barely changed his look but constantly transformed himself.

Even as the department offered few details, Ms. Rollins said the United States was in talks with several countries to immediately secure egg imports as a short-term solution. The department will also provide up to $1 billion in additional funding, Ms. Rollins wrote in an opinion essay published on Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal. That includes distributing up to $500 million to egg producers to enhance disease prevention measures, $400 million in financial relief to farmers hose flocks are affected by the flu and $100 million toward research and development for vaccines and therapeutics.

As the Trump administration slows down flu vaccines for humans, it ramps up flu vaccines for chickens.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/u...

Johns Hopkins sues federal government over NIH funds Johns Hopkins University joined several universities in a lawsuit on Monday evening suing the federal government over NIH funding.

Johns Hopkins officials said the NIH funding cut puts at risk approximately 600 current and ongoing clinical trials at Hopkins, including open clinical trials in cancer, pediatrics and children’s health, heart and vascular studies and the aging brain. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/hi...

NCAA bans trans women from women's sports in reversal of 15-year policy The largest college sports governing body in the country made the change following President Trump’s executive order banning trans girls from girls’ school sports.

The largest college sports governing body in the U.S. has rescinded its former guidance for trans student-athletes, which had been in place since 2010, to ban trans girls from girls' sports.

NCAA announced the policy while praising Trump's executive order to ban trans girls from school sports

Most Americans have positive view of agencies Trump is targeting: poll His admin's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has swiftly moved to reshape the federal workforce.

Majority of Americans like the CDC, FDA and other agencies Trump is targeting: poll www.axios.com/2025/02/06/t...

How does U.S. life expectancy compare to other countries? - Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker The U.S. has the lowest life expectancy among comparable countries, but spends nearly twice as much as them on healthcare per person, on average.

NEW: Life expectancy in the US increased in 2023 to 78.4 years. While life expectancy has somewhat recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, the US is still below pre-pandemic levels and trails peer nations.

www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collec...

BREAKING NEWS: CDC orders mass retraction and revision of submitted research across all science and medicine journals. Banned terms must be scrubbed. Any unpublished manuscript mentioning certain topics, including gender and "LGBT," must be pulled or revised.

BREAKING NEWS: CDC orders mass retraction and revision of submitted research across all science and medicine journals. Banned terms must be scrubbed.

Goes beyond MMWR +other CDC pubs. Applies to research already submitted to top medical journals.

Take a look.
open.substack.com/pub/insideme...

Feels like a good day to re-up the data from this 2023 KFF/Post survey talking to transgender Americans about their views and experiences: www.kff.org/mental-healt...

Context for the CDC eliminating data from its website today. This was in Project 2025.

CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) -- which, since 1990, has tracked high school students' behaviors that can influence health and social outcomes (like smoking, drug use, and dietary habits) -- is now offline