🎅 A Christmas Carol…

With Health Insurance Riders

Ho ho… hold up.

You ever notice how, every year around Christmas, someone in Washington turns into a government-funded Santa Claus? They slide in with promises of “joy to the world” subsidies, bailouts, and “just this one more lifeline” fixes; usually right when your insurance bill lands in your mailbox and looks like it’s been written in crayon by the Grinch. But unlike Santa, this government-as-giver-of-free-stuff has a funny way of making your holiday costs higher, not merrier.

Let’s unwrap what’s been going on with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the law that was supposed to “make health insurance affordable.” Now, if you’ve looked at your premium lately, you probably laughed like Scrooge before the ghost of Christmas Past even showed up.

📈 The Price Tag That Keeps Getting Bigger

Here’s the honest deal: health insurance premiums on the ACA marketplaces are set to rise around 26% on average for 2026 — before you even count what happens when subsidies expire. KFF

Some people are already seeing examples that feel more like Ebenezer than Santa: premiums tripling for the same plan in some towns. Signal Cleveland

And if you want a sense of the long-term pinch? A recent analysis — and let’s be clear, this is more of a cautionary number than an exact Christmas gift, suggests that ACA-era premiums have nearly tripled since the law went into effect and deductibles have more than doubled. Forbes

🎁 So What’s Really Driving the Cost Spiral?

Here’s the part where we don’t need an elf to tell us something smells like last week’s fruitcake.

Insurance costs don’t rise because Santa waved a wand. They rise because medical costs keep skyrocketing. Hospitals charge more. Drugs cost more. Providers demand more. And insurers bake all that into your premium. Higher bill for them? Higher bill for you.

Government subsidies — yes, the same “Santa” funds folks cheer for, have kept your out-of-pocket numbers lower temporarily, but that’s like covering the lights on your tree with a blanket: it looks cheaper, until someone flips the switch. With enhanced subsidies set to expire, many Americans are staring at premiums that could double or more in 2026 without that help. The Sun

🎄 Santa’s Sleigh Or a Bailout Sleigh?

Now, I’m not here to be a holiday cynic. But it’s fair to point out reality: the whole ACA structure has built-in bailouts for insurers when the math doesn’t work for them, yet no equivalent mechanism keeps medical providers from hiking prices at will. That’s like letting someone jack up the price of toys at the North Pole store — and then turning around and giving the store money when customers complain. That’s not Santa. That’s business as usual behind big health insurance doors.

Consumers still get access? Sure. That’s good. But if we’re honest, the underlying problem has always been not the lack of coverage, but the relentlessly rising cost of care itself. As long as medical bills climb faster than wages, “affordable” insurance will continue to be whatever magic trick politicians try to sell around the holidays.

🧑‍🎄 So What’s Jack’s Christmas Wish?

Here’s the takeaway Jack Hapsburg wants you to have this Christmas:

• Insurance shouldn’t be a holiday surprise bill that makes you gasp louder than your Uncle Larry’s fruitcake recipe.

• Subsidies aren’t a cure, they’re a Band-Aid on a system that still lets costs balloon.

• We deserve solutions that don’t just shift the bill around every year like stockings on a mantel.

For this Christmas, let’s hope for a Santa who actually lowers costs, not one who just throws more money at a problem that keeps getting pricier.

Merry Christmas, Rebels. Stay savvy. Stay skeptical. And don’t let anyone sell you a tinsel-wrapped bill as a gift.

If Santa keeps bringing insurers blank checks instead of fixing the system, it’s time for grown-ups to compare notes.

Join the Telegram Rebels—where policyholders swap real stories, spot real red flags, and learn how to stop getting steamrolled quietly.

No spam. No suits. No lectures.
Just clarity, community, and a better way forward.

👉 Pull up a chair. Join the Rebels.

#InsSux
#MakeThemPay
#InsuranceJustice