Jan Barlow: “I found out that my premium every month for my insurance is going from $0 to $109. I’m not happy at all”
Georgians are speaking out against Rep. Buddy Carter and Rep. Mike Collins’ votes to shut down the government instead of protecting affordable health care as 1.4 million Georgians brace to see their premiums skyrocket.
A recent analysis by KFF revealed that Georgians in Collins’ and Carter’s districts could see their health care premiums rise 345% and 296%, respectively, for an average 60-year-old couple, if ACA premium tax credits expire at the end of the year.
- Faith Jessie, WXIA-NBC: Now Marissa, what do we know about these rates if they increase?
- Marissa Sarbak, WXIA-NBC: Well, Faith, we know that Georgians can see the rates and in some cases they tell us their premiums will more than double without these tax credits.
- Marissa Sarbak, WXIA-NBC: The ACA Marketplace is being used by people who don’t get their health care through Medicare, Medicaid or their employer. Some are unemployed. Others are small business owners or contract workers. About 24 million Americans use it.
- Gareth Fenley: It’s very distressing and it puts me in a very difficult position. I mean, I don’t want to go without health care.
- Marissa Sarbak, WXIA-NBC: It’s a question many who purchase health insurance are asking themselves after seeing significant increases populate on the Affordable Care Act Marketplace for 2026.
- Gareth Fenley: The way that it works with the Affordable Care Act, I’m granted a certain amount of an advanced premium tax credit and I can shop with that so I can choose a plan that I can afford.
- Marissa Sarbak, WXIA-NBC: KFF, an independent research group predicted these premiums would more than double for some Americans if the enhanced tax credits weren’t extended by Congress.
- Matt McGough, KFF: We’re starting to get a good sense of what premiums for 2026 are going to look like and they seem to be relatively in line with what was proposed earlier this summer by insurers.
- Marissa Sarbak, WXIA-NBC: Matt McGough, a policy analyst with KFF who focuses on ACA, says not all states have released what their marketplace rates will look like for next year, but Georgia has.
- Matt McGough, KFF: They’re experiencing sticker shock right now. They’re really going to start seeing their budget for next year be really affected.
- Marissa Sarbak, WXIA-NBC: Gareth Fenley says she had no insurance before the Affordable Care Act. She’s hoping she won’t have to revert to that.
- Gareth Fenley: I just can’t believe that they’ll really do that—that they’ll really let them expire.
- Marissa Sarbak, WXIA-NBC: Now again, the ACA Marketplace opens enrollment on November 1st and if Congress comes to a decision to extend the tax credits before the end of the year, we would see those numbers change.
- Faith Jessie, WXIA-NBC: […] We did get a statement from the Democratic Party of Georgia. We did not receive a statement from the Republican Party [of Georgia] but we are waiting for them.
13WMAZ: ‘I’m not happy at all’ | Central Georgians discuss potential premium hikes as open enrollment looms
Olivia Dunne | October 22, 2025
- With the government shutdown now in its third week, Central Georgians are starting to get nervous about their future healthcare.
- Many health care subsidies are expected to expire at the end of the year, and some are staring down possible premium hikes.
- Jan Barlow of Eastman learned Tuesday that her premium would skyrocket next year, if the subsidies expire.
- “I found out that my premium every month for my insurance is going from $0 to $109. I’m not happy at all,” Barlow said.
- After she found out about her $109 increase, Barlow had to go back to work at a pharmacy, just next door to her insurance agent’s office. She says she doesn’t know where that money would come from.
- “I’ve got to find out where that $109 is coming from every month. Some people, that’s not much money, to some people that’s a lot of money. And to me that’s a lot of money,” Barlow said.
- She says she has an inhaler, blood pressure medication, and says she was even on a ventilator for a time. For her, coverage is a matter of life or death.
- “I’ve got to have health insurance. I have too many health problems. So may just have to have a second job,” Barlow said.
- But Barlow isn’t the only one. Georgia Access enrolled more than one and a half million Georgians in 2025, and Senator Jon Ossoff’s office says 1.4 million of those Georgians could see their premiums go up.
- Michael Mangham is an agent with Accurate Health Plans in Dodge County, where Barlow made her plan. He says he has roughly 3,000 Central Georgia clients who will see premium increases if subsidies expire. He expects many of them will abandon their health insurance.
- “We’re expecting a pretty big loss of clientele just because of how unaffordable it could actually be,” Mangham said.
- Mangham says as open enrollment creeps closer, he and his clients get more nervous. He says they now call daily, nervous about the future of their coverage. All he can do, is wait.
- “It’s like, listen, we’ll make sure that we can help you find something somehow,” Mangham said. “But for right now it is just unfortunately a lot of hurry up and wait and see what happens.”
- The Open Enrollment Period begins Nov. 1, and goes until Jan. 15.