Rising health care costs are crushing Georgia families

For too many Georgia families, what comes in and what goes out isn’t working — in fact, it hasn’t been working for some time now.

Rents are skyrocketing all around Georgia, in urban areas and rural enclaves. In South Georgia, demand outstrips supply, and new homes are a rare sight.

Regardless of where you live or shop, groceries cost more, and those families who need a little extra help aren’t getting it.

With summers getting hotter and winter temperatures spiking, data centers popping up and power companies demanding more from ratepayers, utility bills are shockingly high.

Then the cost of child care requires an ever-larger share of paychecks — yet wages, across the state and across the board, haven’t kept pace with a cost of living that is spiraling out of control. 

This piles onto a long-term struggle against the constant challenge of health care in a state that refuses to fully expand Medicaid. We’ve watched as hospitals have shuttered, doctors have fled, and prices continue to surge.

Now, Georgia families are being hit with another major cost increase: rising health insurance premiums because Republicans in Congress let Affordable Care Act subsidies expire.

As state lawmakers enter the 2026 legislative session, Georgians are suffering the consequences of stubbornness and inaction when it comes to health care costs. Premiums are doubling — even tripling — for hundreds of thousands of Georgians. Half a million Georgians could lose coverage altogether due to cost increases.

In early December, I received a desperate text from a wife and mother who runs a small business. She and her husband rely on the ACA for insurance, but with the cost increasing from $750 a month to $2,500 a month — triple the rate — they will have to forgo coverage. Her daughter may be able to stay on Peachcare for Kids, but she’s not sure. 

Georgians aren’t surprised by what’s happening in Washington as Republicans refuse to simply extend the subsidies that have worked. Here at home, Republicans annually reject billions of dollars to save rural hospitals and reduce costs across the state. Instead, we get piecemeal policies that serve far fewer than needed and pad the pockets of consultants.

Republican lawmakers point to Georgia’s Pathways to Coverage program, but that only offers limited assistance to certain low-income residents who otherwise do not qualify for Medicaid. Pathways reaches only a narrow slice of Georgians and leaves working families exposed — particularly those who rely on ACA marketplace plans.

Too often, corruption is a companion to authoritarianism, a useful byproduct of ignoring the will of the people to serve the ideological and economic whims of those in charge. If Georgia wants to instead take care of its people, then state lawmakers must pursue real plans to address the affordability crisis, starting with the ACA and Medicaid.

Democrats have said they plan to revive legislation to create a state health care affordability program aimed at lowering premiums.

Refusing to follow the proven success of 40 other states, Georgia Republicans are going to bid for $1.4 billion to salvage rural health care, money made available with the signature Trump bill that slashed ACA subsidies to fund tax breaks for billionaires. 

This pursuit for a slice of a $50 billion hush fund for states facing the economic cliff on rural health care costs is particularly absurd for Georgia, as lawmakers have refused more than $20 billion that could have funded much more. They have repeatedly rejected a loaf of bread and now seek praise for begging for crumbs.

The disconnect is cruel, and it has deep consequences for our families.

Rising health care costs are accelerating the broader affordability crisis. When the cost of taking care of illnesses and injuries rises, families do not suddenly find extra money. They cut back elsewhere. A doctor’s visit gets postponed. A credit card balance grows. Rent is paid late. Less food gets put on the table. 

In a state where many households are already living paycheck to paycheck, higher health care costs have the potential to ruin people’s lives. Sen. Jon Ossoff put it plainly: “This is life or death. People will die.”

Georgia’s safety net is already weaker than most. More than 450,000 Georgians are without insurance despite the failed Pathways program and due to the Republican refusal to expand Medicaid.

For years, ACA subsidies have helped bridge that coverage gap divide for middle- and lower-income families. Those are the same families seeing premiums spike for 2026 coverage.

The question before Georgia lawmakers is not whether Congress might act — they’ve already shown an inability (or unwillingness) to do so. It’s whether Georgia leaders can acknowledge the pain families are feeling and whether they’ll abdicate the responsibility to help their constituents.

Affordability isn’t a “hoax” or a “con job” as Trump has said. It shows up in kitchen-table decisions and late-night calculations. It determines whether parents can keep coverage for their children, whether workers can manage chronic conditions and whether a single unexpected bill tips a household into crisis.

As the 2026 session begins, lawmakers have a choice. They can argue over ideology, debate process and posture for the future — or they can confront the present and recognize that health care affordability is at the core of the economic pressure crushing Georgia families. They can decide to finally take action.

For Georgia families, democracy must finally deliver — or we’ll all pay the price.

Stacey Abrams is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and host of the podcast “Assembly Required.” She previously served as minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives.