Healthcare Coverage at Risk Without Action Before Sept. 30

Without urgent Congressional action by the end of September, premium payments will be set to dramatically increase for the vast majority of Marketplace enrollees starting in 2026. This poses a significant threat to insurance affordability, access to care, and the availability of healthcare services across our state.

How You Can Help:

• Send a Message to your Congressional Delegates: Fill out the form to send a pre-written message to your representatives, or add your own story by clicking the pencil icon in the message body.
• Share the Call to Action: Share this message with your colleagues, friends, or family so that they may advocate to protect ACA EPTCs. Simply share this page link, or click share to social media after completing the form.

Expiration Impact on South Carolinians:

• Premium Increases: Premiums for South Carolinians will increase by nearly 100% on average.
• Rural Impact: Rural residents, who face more expensive premiums on average, are even more reliant on these credits for preserving coverage and will face the highest increases.
• Uninsured Population Increase: South Carolinians without insurance are expected to increase by 134%, resulting in an additional 142,000 people being priced out of coverage.
• Worse Health Outcomes: Patients losing coverage may delay or forgo preventative and chronic care management, leading to higher acuity cases, poorer health outcomes, and increased hospital admissions.

Impact on SC Hospitals:

• Hospitals will see a $284 million dollar increase in uncompensated care costs annually, with safety-net and rural hospitals particularly at risk. South Carolina hospitals already provide $3.2 billion in uncompensated and charity care per year.
• Hospitals may be forced to reduce staffing, delay infrastructure investments, or cut patient services, all of which undermines care quality and patient access to care.
• The combination of lost federal funding, uncompensated care cost, non-emergent ER use, employer costs due to uninsured workers, and costs due to productivity loss totals to over $2.2 billion annually – if the EPTCs are not extended.
• These losses will be in addition to the limits of state directed payment (SDP) programs passed under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which once fully implemented would lead to a $1.7 billion reduction in federal Medicaid funding given to SC annually.