Politifact: “The average net monthly premium increased 114%, and more than 1 million people were affected.”
Recent reporting detailed how GOP U.S. Senate candidate Mike Collins voted to double health insurance premiums for more than a million Georgians.
The reporting by Politifact outlines that as a result of Collins’ votes, “the average net monthly premium increased 114%, and more than 1 million people were affected,” and that “Collins’ congressional district […] would experience a 345% benchmark plan premiums spike, the largest in the state,” and “Georgia enrollees dropped by 37% from January 2025 to mid-April.”
Politifact: Did Mike Collins help double health insurance premiums for 1 million Georgians?
By: Ben Brasch | July 16, 2026
KEY EXCERPTS:
- As Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff seeks to retain his Georgia seat, he is pointing to Republican challenger U.S. Rep. Mike Collins’ healthcare record as detrimental to Georgians.
- “Donald Trump and his puppet Mike Collins, they doubled health insurance premiums for more than a million Georgians and threw 300,000 Georgians off their insurance altogether,” Ossoff said during a June 27 campaign rally in Savannah.
- U.S. adults’ ability to pay for healthcare is at a five-year low, and Americans view healthcare affordability as a massive problem. Healthcare analysts warned that premium costs would shoot up and customers would drop their marketplace plans. Those expectations are becoming reality nationally. Georgia is no exception.
- Georgia lost more than a third its enrollees on the marketplace between January 2025 and mid-April […] Georgia’s net marketplace premiums have more than doubled, increasing by an average of nearly 114% from 2025 […]
- Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act made significant changes to the Affordable Care Act marketplace […] The bill did not extend expiring subsidies that kept premiums lower.
- Like Trump, Collins has long opposed the ACA. In July 2025, Collins voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill, posting on X shortly after the vote that it has allowed the “golden age of America.”
- Protesters gathered outside Collins’ district office in October […] Collins’ congressional district, which sits between Atlanta and Augusta, would experience a 345% benchmark plan premiums spike, the largest in the state, as a result of the expiring subsidies.
- In early January, Collins voted against a bill that solely focused on extending the credits.
- In June, [a] legal and consulting firm […] found Georgia’s 2026 average net premiums had risen 121% from 2025, well above the 58% average national hike.
- A state health consumer nonprofit found a similar pattern […] showing that the average net monthly premium “approximately doubled,” from $69 to $148.10. That’s a 114% increase.
- Georgia enrollees dropped by 37% from January 2025 to mid-April […] That amounts to more than 500,000 fewer enrollees — some who elected to drop their coverage, and some who were dropped after a three-month grace period.
- The reporting revealed a dip of 300,000 enrollees on top of the previously known 200,000.
- […] the effects are significant for Georgia, where Republicans have mostly opposed expanding Medicaid insurance coverage to more low-income people under age 65. “These folks don’t have another choice” […]
- The lapse in subsidies had a predictable effect on Affordable Care Act marketplace customers, including those in Georgia.
- […] The average net monthly premium increased 114%, and more than 1 million people were affected.
- It’s reasonable to say at least 300,000 are losing their insurance (because of price increases); the data suggests it could be more.