Americans are being squeezed from every angle. After Donald Trump and Republicans slashed more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations, families across the country are facing skyrocketing health insurance premiums, sky-high prescription drug prices, mounting medical debt, and the growing uncertainty about whether they can afford the coverage and care they need.
The consequences are showing up in household budgets everywhere. Families are cutting back on groceries, turning down the heat, postponing medical care, rationing medications, taking on debt, and wondering how they’ll make ends meet. Some are contemplating moving. Others are questioning whether they can afford to continue life-saving treatments. For too many, the choice is no longer between wants and needs but between paying the bills and getting the health care that keeps them alive.
These stories show the real cost of Republican health care cuts. Not just in dollars and cents, but in the sacrifices families are being forced to make, the financial security they’ve lost, and the impossible choices they’re confronting every day.
Last week, Protect Our Care launched an interactive hub full of over 400 state-by-state testimonies from Americans reeling from premium hikes, hospital closures, and coverage losses. Throughout the month of June, Protect Our Care is blasting Republicans for their health care crisis ahead of the one-year anniversary of their big, ugly bill on July 4th.
Renee Rubin Ross, California
- “‘I don’t even know how to get my mind around it. It’s the opposite of affordable,’ said Dr. Ross, who relies on Obamacare to cover her family of four in California. Staying on the same plan for 2026 will cost about $4,000 a month, $2,700 more than the roughly $1,300 per month she had been paying.”
- “But the idea of paying nearly $50,000 a year for health insurance is daunting, even if she can find a way to pay for it. ‘We’re truly in shock,’ she said.” [New York Times]
Sheila Nesbit, Illinois
- “Sheila Nesbit, who recently retired after a long career as a librarian, is among those having to make tough choices. She didn’t realize that Medicare would cover less than her job-based insurance plan did. So when her doctor recommended new orthopedic shoe inserts costing roughly $250 to help with pain while walking, she decided not to buy them, and she’s also looking for discount cards to help her purchase a $90 medicine that Medicare doesn’t cover.”
- “What’s more, she sometimes skips lunch and doesn’t always take her medicines for cholesterol, asthma and high blood pressure so she can save money. And she’s lowered the thermostat at home, opting to put on a sweater and huddle under two blankets to ward off the cold. ‘I never thought I’d be living like this,’ said Nesbit, 65, who lives in the Chicago suburb of Park Forest.” [CNN]
Lou Robinson, Maine
- “‘It hurts, it’s sour, it’s shameful,’ said Robinson, whose bank account now frequently goes into the negatives. Robinson needs the insurance for ADHD and depression medications that have been ‘life changing and life saving,’ and has considered getting a second job to offset the higher premium costs. But ‘having to use up what little of my personal time I have to do more work would be so crushing.’”
- “‘You’re not put on this earth just to try and survive,’ Robinson said. ‘We’re not put on this earth just to try and make enough money to have a house, have food, support our families. We’re supposed to experience the world, too. And it is becoming increasingly harder to do that.’” [Keene Sentinel]
Tim and Gina Abbas, Michigan
- “For Tim Abbas, the Affordable Care Act insurance plan has been more than just coverage — it’s been a lifeline. When his brain tumor progressed to grade four, the plan allowed him to access a crucial clinical trial at an out-of-state hospital.”
- “‘We can’t afford the insurance anymore that lets us go there,” said Gina Abbas, Tim’s wife. “Life-saving care for my husband is top of mind, and it’s really, really hard.’”
- “Tim, a former schoolteacher, will now switch to his wife’s insurance plan, but this comes with its own challenges — the hospital running his clinical trial is out of network, leading to higher costs the family cannot afford.”
- “‘(Tim) said, ‘What if I just stop getting care?’ He eventually will be on Medicare, but that’s not until August. He’s like, ‘I’ll just wait until August.’ (Tim) can’t do that. He won’t be alive,’ Gina said. She said other people in their support groups and in the cancer community are all having to make really difficult decisions. ‘Sometimes it’s a choice between being able to pay your mortgage or keep your loved one alive,’ Gina said.” [ClickOn Detroit]
Malissie Plugge, Nebraska
- “Malissie Plugge felt blessed to find the perfect child care setup for her daughters Margo and Violet, a warm, sweet in-home day care not too far from their home in Omaha. […] But in January, the provider learned her mother’s home health nurse would no longer be covered by Medicaid due to state funding cuts. The day care had to close so she could take care of her mom.”
- “Losing the place and the people that her children loved was a major blow for the Plugges, not just emotionally, but financially. She found a new day care for the girls, and negotiated the monthly rate down a few hundred dollars, but it still will cost the family $500 more every month. Finding that money in their already tight teachers’ budget is going to hurt. ‘We don’t eat out and we don’t do a lot of shopping and all of those things, so it’s like, what’s left to cut?’ Plugge said.” [Flatwater Free Press]
Alyson Chadwick, New York
- “Chadwick’s mother has Alzheimer’s and lived with Chadwick for two years but is now at an assisted living facility – a situation Chadwick fears could now be in jeopardy because of the ripple effect that Medicaid cuts may have on these facilities. ‘I am worried they will lose funding from Medicaid and our bill will go up,’ she says.” [The Guardian]
Randall Schneider, Ohio
- “‘We couldn’t pay our electric bill, we couldn’t get our groceries for Christmas, it blindsided us,’ he said. Schneider received a liver and double kidney transplant two and a half years ago which forced him to medically retire. He is cared for by his wife Kimberly Schneider who claims she does not have her own health insurance to afford her husband’s healthcare policy. ‘I’m just praying nothing comes up, it’s that everything we’ve had has just been keeping him healthy,’ she said.” [WFMJ]
Lynn Weidner, Pennsylvania
- “‘I was paycheck to paycheck last year,’ Weidner said. ‘This year, without cutting anything out, I will be in the negative.’ Weidner said that obtaining health care outside of the ACA is cost prohibitive for her, because of pre-existing medical conditions.”
- “Shortly after enrolling in a plan through Pennie, Weidner said she obtained bloodwork and learned she is anemic. She now manages the condition with frequent testing and iron infusions, which she said keeps her in medical debt. On top of her monthly premium, she pays a monthly sum directly to the hospital for her debt. ‘It just keeps turning over, year over year,’ Weidner said. ‘It never gets to zero.’”
- “Weidner said that over the years she has learned to cut costs wherever she can. Recently she contacted her cable company and downgraded her Internet service. In addition, she said she has had to save pills at the end of her prescriptions to prepare for the next emergency, and make sacrifices at the grocery store to make ends meet.” [Bucks County Beacon]
Adrienne Martin, Texas
- “The 47-year-old Texas mother had to make a difficult choice when she found out her monthly healthcare premium was increasing in 2026 from what she described as a manageable $630 (£467) to an unaffordable $2,400 (£1,781).”
- “Her husband depends on an IV medication to treat a blood-clotting disease that costs $70,000 a month without insurance. Knowing their benefits would expire, the family stockpiled the drug to survive the first few months of the year.”
- “‘It would be like paying two mortgage payments,’ she said of the new monthly price for healthcare. ‘We can’t pay $30,000 for insurance a year.’” [BBC]
Mila Clarke, Texas
- “The extra costs were too much for Clarke. In addition to costly monthly premiums, she spent hundreds each month on insulin, an insulin pump, a continuous glucose monitor and medical appointments to treat her Type 1 diabetes. ‘I was spending over $1,000 a month just trying to stay alive,’ said Clarke, a health coach and diabetes advocate who runs the Hangry Woman website.” [USA Today]
Kelly Berry, Wisconsin
- “‘To go from zero to $2,300 (per month) is financially a huge hit,’ said Berry, 58, who serves as a consultant and offers peer-review services for small businesses. They’ve cut back on streaming services and spent less on Christmas. They probably will skip vacation, and Berry won’t attend an upcoming work conference in Nova Scotia, Canada. Even after cutting household expenses, she doesn’t know if they will save enough to pay their monthly insurance bills.” [USA Today]
Nathaniel Lentz, Wisconsin
- “Lentz said he’s frugal: Groceries and rent, that’s basically it. And before enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits expired at the end of last year, he was paying less than $5 per month for his health insurance. That figure jumped to $581 at the start of the year, he said. That added stress. He lives within his means, but there isn’t enough wiggle room to absorb that kind of cost each month. He wondered if he needed to find a different home or ask others for money.” [Wisconsin Independent]