With a Dec. 31 deadline looming, hundreds of 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 subsidies, says Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
The Democratic lawmaker from Weston said 200,000 people in her congressional district would be impacted if no deal can be made for extending tax credits for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. They expire at the end of December.
“ 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 healthcare premiums."
Wasserman Schultz's congressional district covers most of southern Broward and parts of northern Miami-Dade.
She says Democrats are ready to negotiate, but Republicans have so far been unwilling to do so.
President Donald Trump and Republican leaders say they’ll consider extending the enhanced tax credits — but only after Democrats vote to end the current 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.
READ MORE: Wasserman Schultz blasts Trump administration's proposed cuts to Social Security disability benefits
This is a News In Brief report. Visit WLRN News for in-depth reporting from South Florida and Florida news.
