Americans who buy coverage through the Affordable Care Act are paying more for it than they have at any point in the program’s history, according to a KFF report released May 19. The sharpest hit has come in deductibles, which rose to an average $3,786 this year from $2,759 in 2025, a 37% jump.
The increase matters now because health care affordability is sitting near the top of the public agenda heading into the 2026 midterm elections. In a Pew Research Center survey released May 11, 73% of adults said the cost of health care is a very big problem for the country, up 6 percentage points from February 2025. Pew found that view among 85% of Democrats and 60% of Republicans, a sign that the issue cuts across party lines even as Washington remains divided over what to do next.
KFF said the higher costs are showing up in how people shop for coverage. Some customers have dropped plans with higher premiums that came with lower out-of-pocket costs and moved into cheaper policies that leave them paying more when they actually seek care. That trade-off is the clearest sign of how the affordable care act market has changed since the enhanced subsidies that had been in place since 2021 were allowed to expire at the end of 2025.
The subsidy lapse also carries a political edge that both parties are trying to read. KFF said in an April 29 survey that nine in ten voters said health care affordability would influence their decision to vote and whom to support in the 2026 midterm elections, including 72% of Democrats, 63% of independents and 47% of Republicans. Trump dismissed Democratic warnings about affordability as “one good line of bulls---,” even though he made ending Obamacare a central promise in his 2015 and 2016 campaign and came close to doing it in 2017 before failing.
KFF’s January polling found 61% of Americans viewed Obamacare favorably, while 38% did not like it, suggesting the program remains politically durable even as costs rise. Keeping the subsidies in place would have cost an estimated $30 billion a year, but for many consumers the immediate question is simpler: whether they can keep coverage they can actually use, not just a policy with a lower monthly bill.
