Many people say the American healthcare system is largely broken, or at least facing seemingly intractable problems. But it could get worse, compounded by policies of President Donald Trump’s administration on medical debt and inaction by Congress.Expiration of tax credits from the Affordable Care Act at 2025’s end restricted who could claim Medicaid assistance. That left those covered by Obamacare increasingly facing difficult choices of sucking up extra expenses — while also covering the basics of life, such as rent and food costs — or even forgoing coverage altogether. All of which compounded an already deep medical debt crisis.It isn’t just the recently uninsured, either. It’s increasingly people who are opting for relatively cheaper premiums, but who then face much higher deductibles and maximum out-of-pocket costs for any care. Making for a growing volume of the so-called underinsured people.
“The focus on bringing down health insurance costs is driven by the philosophy that, for premium costs to go down, people need to be incentivized to stay healthy,” said Jack Glasker, owner of New Jersey-based brokerage Affordable Health Care Solutions. “We see evidence of this in MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) but, despite the initiative and the potentiality of its long-term effects, benefit health plans are being given more freedom to offload the cost-sharing burden through higher deductibles and MOOPs (maximum out of pocket) to the consumer.”Together with the decreased subsidies from the ACA, “this is what we see as the leading cause of rising patient medical debt,” Glasker said.(Washington Examiner illustration; Getty Images)
