3,500 Alaskans have dropped health insurance since expiration of ACA subsidies
Republican Rep. Nick Begich joined a majority of Republican House members in voting against a three-year extension of the tax credits for health insurance premiums.
Alaska Republican Rep. Nick Begich joined all but 17 GOP members of the House of Representatives in voting in January against a bill to extend a popular tax credit that had helped 22 million Americans afford premiums for health insurance plans purchased on Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Since funding of the expanded credit expired at the end of 2025, thousands of Alaskans have dropped their coverage plans.
According to a July 2026 AP analysis of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data, 27,052 Alaskans were enrolled in an Affordable Care Act marketplace plan as of February 2025. By February 2026, that number had dropped by 3,506, to 23,546.
In 2021, Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed a law that temporarily expanded eligibility for subsidies for ACA marketplace insurance policies and increased the size of the benefit for those who were already eligible. A year later, the enhanced tax credits were renewed through 2025. With the expanded credits, enrollment in marketplace insurance plans more than doubled nationwide between 2021 and 2025.
In 2025, with President Donald Trump saying he was against renewal, the GOP-led Congress allowed the subsidies to expire. In Alaska, out-of-pocket costs for ACA marketplace policy premiums increased by 50%, from an average of $223 a month in 2025 to $334 in 2026. Many people could not afford to keep their plans.
The bill on extending the tax credits through 2028 passed in the House in January by a 230-196 vote, but it has not received a vote in the Senate. A similar three-year extension bill fell short of the required three-fifths supermajority in that chamber in December 2025, receiving 51 votes for and 48 against. Alaska Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan voted in favor of the extension.
A spokesperson for Begich did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
“For more than a decade, the health insurance system created by Democrats under Obamacare has proven completely unaffordable for the American healthcare customer. Premiums continue to rise, access remains uneven, and families are paying more each year without seeing better outcomes,” Begich told the Alaska Beacon in a Jan. 8 statement. “An extension of Obamacare COVID subsidies does not fix what is broken. It simply pours more taxpayer dollars into a system that rewards insurance companies for denying care and raising rates, rather than delivering a better product for customers.”
A September 2025 analysis by the House minority staff of Congress’ Joint Economic Committee estimated that 6,884 fewer Alaskans will be covered through ACA marketplace plans by 2034.
Experts have warned that a drop in the number of Alaskans with health insurance could lead to more serious illnesses, more strain on hospitals, and families moving out of the state.
“I worry about that,” Alaska Association on Developmental Disabilities executive director Kim Champney said at an August 2025 panel discussion on health care in Juneau, according to an Alaska Beacon report. “Because I think people will decide to leave Alaska because we have the most expensive health care in the country.”
