Health insurance costs are up. Women and LGBTQ+ people are paying the price

The 19th News – Wednesday, January 28, 2026
By Shefali Luthra, Barbara Rodriguez, Orion Rummler

Their health care premiums have skyrocketed. And now, women and LGBTQ+ people across the country are scrambling.

Some are pushing off paying for retirement, or dipping into their savings. Some are looking for extra work to afford plans that they aren’t sure will actually cover their health care bills. And some are planning to go without insurance, hoping they won’t get too sick to manage medical expenses on their own.

The chaos and uncertainty are the result of a monthslong impasse, after Congress let subsidies lapse that would keep down the price of health insurance on the Affordable Care Act’s individual marketplace, a key source of coverage for millions of people who don’t get insurance from work or through government programs like Medicare or Medicaid.

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