1. United States
2. Colo.
3. Letter

The health-care subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) were marketed as a lifeline for consumers, yet they’ve become a lucrative lifeline for big insurers instead. Since the law’s passage, America’s largest health-insurance companies have pulled in over $371 billion in profits—more than 40 % of that going to one company alone. Meanwhile, government funding for the expansion of managed-care for Medicaid beneficiaries soared—federal spending on the expansion reached roughly $126 billion in 2023, much of it flowing into private-insurance contracts. While this corporate windfall was unfolding, premiums in the ACA marketplace continued their dramatic climb. In requests filed for 2026, insurers are seeking a median premium increase of about 18 %, with more than a quarter of insurers proposing hikes of 20 % or more. These aren’t small adjustments—they reflect a market where insurers raise rates from a position of guaranteed subsidy support rather than competitive pressure. The cycle is obvious: government subsidies flood the marketplace, insurers levy higher rates, taxpayers fund the gap—and the end user sees higher costs and mounting national debt. The subsidies serve less as relief and more as corporate back-drop payments, insulating insurers from market discipline. If we truly want affordable health care, we must stop subsidizing the system’s giants and start promoting structural change: more transparency, more competition, more patient power—not just handing checks to firms that keep raising prices while the government foots the bill.