Here’s What Happens Now That We’re Going Over the Obamacare Cliff

“I’m choosing to take the bigger hit of the premium increase instead of changing my plan, because the specialists I have, I’ve been working with them for over a year now,” she said. “Just the idea of trying to find a new team of people, even if it would save me, like, I don’t know, $100, is crazy.”

Baggot currently pays $197 per month for health care. Beginning in January, her same plan will cost $365. Joining her husband’s health insurance through his job is not an option, she said, because it would cost more than what she pays through the marketplace. It also impedes her and her husband’s considerations about starting a family. Baggot is grateful that she has no employees; as a small-business owner, her biggest expense will soon be the cost of her own health care.

The expiration of the subsidies will also create significant uncertainty for enrollees who are currently unemployed. Jeremy Koulish, a software developer who lost his job as a contractor with the U.S. Census Bureau in May and is active in his local Working Families Party chapter, is currently job hunting; while he has “a few irons in the fire,” his future is far from concrete. Koulish, who lives in Modina, New York, is currently enrolled in health insurance through the ACA marketplace, but the cost of his current plan is set to jump from less than $400 a month to $1,600 a month. Because he has no income, he has now enrolled in Medicaid for next year while he seeks employment.