Name: Rising premiums fuel 2026 affordability concerns
Uploaded: 2025-12-31T03:49:21.803Z
Duration: 3 min 55 s
Description: An in-depth discussion with economist Bingo AJ Laurie explores the complex factors driving up health insurance premiums, from industry consolidation to expiring tax credits, and the financial strain hitting families.

An in-depth discussion with economist Bingo AJ Laurie explores the complex factors driving up health insurance premiums, from industry consolidation to expiring tax credits, and the financial strain hitting families.

Florida

Rising health insurance premiums are creating financial strain for many Americans, especially as open enrollment periods begin and key Affordable Care Act tax credits expire. Economist Binga Agilore highlighted the complexity of the health care system, noting that costs are driven by a mix of hospital consolidation, pharmaceutical advertising, and a lack of transparency in pricing.

The discussion also addressed how medical advancements and increased life expectancy come with higher costs, and that the expiration of government benefits like SNAP and tax credits is compounding affordability concerns. As premiums approach a significant portion of household income, affordability of basic needs is expected to be a major issue in 2026.

Rising premiums fuel 2026 affordability concerns

Welcome back. Here's a question for you. Has the premium pain and the cost of your insurance really hit your budget yet? Well recently open enrollment began and so did that yearly game of risk for millions of Americans Here's my conversation with economist bingo Algelori on what exactly is driving up the cost of health care You know, everyone says that hospitals and doctor groups are getting bigger and stronger I'm just curious what chunk of your premium today Goes to places like that that basically run their local market, you know I see so many glitzy TV ads for hospitals these days pharmaceutical companies, you know with drugs that names I can't pronounce for conditions. I've never heard of they're on constantly in primetime television Is that where the money's going? Is that why the hospital charges you a hundred bucks for a Tylenol? We've got urgent care centers in the Tampa Bay area that seem like Starbucks now They're on every corner when people see that they start to question. Is this why I'm paying so much for health insurance That's a great question And I think the one thing to realize is that this is such an intricate system And it's hard to disentangle what the drivers of cost are and so you think about there's the manufacturers There's the insurers there are pharmacy benefit managers There's a pharmacy itself along with the hospital and the doctors and so it's hard to disentangle those things And I think one of the things that we need to think about this is more of like a long-term thing is Introducing transparency to the whole system So, you know where the money goes where it's coming from where you talk about a brand name drug versus generic drug Versus what the pharmacy needs versus what the manufacturer needs That's the kind of thing you have to think about and we certainly have made advancements in medication I mean you look at this how much of this is pure profit if you want to look at it cynically versus people Having the availability to get more scans earlier for things like cancer more medication for almost anything That health care today in 2025 you could argue is much more layered much more thorough and advanced than say 1985 but you are paying a lot more for it. That is correct. So an answer thing is we are healthier We have more advances. There are more diseases that we're able to pick up earlier You know We think about you know doing colonoscopy scans at age 40 and things like that and we have you know If you find it There are procedures you can do and things you could take to be able to alleviate it you think about people life expectancy where people Were living to 60 70 now people are living longer So that's part of is that to be able to get those Advancements we have to put in the investment and the research and development to be able to get that but at what point does this? System break with the average families premiums Hit say 20% of their take-home pay People are faced with the prospect of not having health insurance and just hoping that nothing bad happens to them Exactly, and that's the thing about what's happening right now with the Affordable Care Act the tax credits There were tax credits that were you know Didn't make it cheaper but didn't mitigate some of the higher costs and now that the Congress has let that expire That's gonna make it really tough for people and we have to put this in a broader context that you know You're looking at what's happening with the SNAP program and those benefits going away You look at higher grocery prices, you know individually getting hit at all sides And so you have to kind of advocate to your representative that you know You want to be able to mitigate your cost basic needs and affordability perhaps the number one topic in the coming year of 2026 I know it certainly played a big role this week in the elections that we saw across the country Binga Agilore chief economist Center on budget and policy priorities. Thank you so much for your insight, sir. Really appreciate it AI's job apocalypse Amazon axes 14,000 workers this year to fuel the bot takeover. We'll talk about your future and all of it next

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