Big Ugly Bill could push Virginia health-insurance costs up 20 percent in 2026

The 10 insurers planning to participate in the Virginia health-insurance marketplace are proposing increases of 20 percent or higher in 2026, which U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, D-Va., say was “entirely avoidable.”

“This entirely avoidable increase is being driven by the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits that have helped hundreds of thousands of Virginians afford quality healthcare,” the senators said in a joint statement on Friday, referring to tax credits first made available during the COVID-19 pandemic to lower monthly Affordable Care Act marketplace premiums.

The Big Ugly Bill passed by congressional Republicans and signed into law by Donald Trump on July 4 did not extend these credits.

The result: more than a third of the nearly 415,000 Virginians who currently rely on these credits to pay for coverage could be priced out of their health insurance, according to the Virginia State Corporation Commission Bureau of Insurance.

“While President Trump and congressional Republicans bent over backward to extend tax cuts for the uber-wealthy as part of their tax and budget bill, they chose not to renew these critical healthcare credits that have saved the average Virginian nearly $90 a month. Alongside our Democratic colleagues, we even forced a vote on an amendment to the bill to extend the credits, and Republicans voted it down,” Kaine and Warner said.

The senators have introduced legislation to repeal the healthcare provisions in the Big Ugly Bill and permanently extend the Affordable Care Act enhanced tax credits.

“We know what’s at stake when health care becomes unaffordable: families go without coverage, people skip doctor visits and prescriptions, and small health problems turn into costly emergencies,” Kaine and Warner said. “That’s not only bad for public health, it drives up costs for everyone. We remain committed to restoring these critical tax credits and bringing down health care costs, and we call on our colleagues in Congress to put politics aside and act now to prevent this needless premium spike from hurting Virginia families.”