About 25,000 fewer Michiganders signed up for Affordable Care Act health coverage plans during this year’s open enrollment period compared to the same time last year.
Republican leaders in Congress refused to allow a vote on extending Affordable Care Act tax credits, so they expired at the end of 2025. The tax credits were meant to help pay for insurance premiums, and their expiration has caused significant premium hikes for millions buying health insurance.
Dianne Byrum is the director for Protect Our Care Michigan, an advocacy group focused on affordable and equitable healthcare. She said the increase in health insurance costs is a crisis nationwide, and for some people, the cost of insurance has increased by thousands of dollars a year.
January 3 data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services shows that 491,565 Michigan residents have signed up for healthcare plans for 2026’s latest enrollment period. By this time last year, 516,093 Michiganders had signed up.
The deadline to sign up for this year’s open enrollment was January 15.
“There's an affordability crisis in America for middle-class working people,” Byrum said. “And this is at the same time that they're paying more for groceries, more for rent, more for utilities. Across the board, they're getting squeezed and squeezed and squeezed. It's getting very difficult for them to make ends meet.”
Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS) Director Anita Fox said in a statement to Michigan Public it’s “disappointing, but not surprising, to see that enrollment during this open enrollment period is declining, based on the data available so far.”
“Without action on the enhanced tax credits, Michiganders who rely on HealthCare.gov for their health insurance will face higher prices, and many risk losing coverage altogether,” Fox said. “Michigan, as well as insurance regulators across the country, have advocated strongly for the continuation of the enhanced tax credits.”
A bill was recently passed in the U.S. House, with bipartisan support, that would extend the ACA tax credits for three years. It now goes to the Republican-controlled Senate, where the majority leader, Senator John Thune of South Dakota, can decide whether (or not) to take it up.
Byrum said passing the bill is critical. “That legislation needs to be passed so it can give immediate relief instead of ripping the guts out of people's ability to just provide for their families and have a chance at a healthy life in the American dream."
Bryum expects that Michiganders will continue to struggle to purchase health insurance if nothing is done. And if people don't have insurance, they're going to get sicker, and rely more on emergency hospital visits for care.
Bryum said that could have a significant negative impact on hospitals and their ability to keep operating.
“You're talking about eliminating the healthcare policy of the United States in just a few short months,” Bryum said. “And the ripple effects on that in the system is going to be catastrophic.”
