Hallie Leonard and her husband, Erik Caldarone, already struggled to pay for health insurance last year. To cover themselves and their young daughter with the cheapest, highest-deductible plan available, the Newbury couple spent about $1,800 a month in 2025.
But late last year, they learned that cost would jump to nearly $3,900 for 2026 — and that didn’t include coverage for their second child, who was born this month.
After hours on the phone with the state marketplace Vermont Health Connect, Leonard believed she had two options: Give up the photography business she had spent years building in order to qualify for federal help, or forgo health insurance entirely.
“It’s really enraging,” she said.
Fewer Vermonters enrolled in Affordable Care Act health insurance plans this year, new state data shows, as expiring federal subsidies effectively doubled the average premium cost.
As of Jan. 15, the cutoff to sign up, there were 2,500 fewer people enrolled in the state’s Obamacare plans compared to last year. That’s a roughly 6% drop. And more people are opting for cheaper, higher-deductible plans. Selections in the “bronze” category were up 4% this year, although gold plans, which offer higher monthly costs but lower deductibles, remained the most popular.
It’s unknown at this point how many people who left the health care exchange have found other types of insurance coverage or are going entirely without.
“How cruel is it that we have to play this game?”Erik Caldarone
Because Leonard and her husband run a wedding venue, their income is mostly seasonal, which has allowed them to access a third option, though likely not for long: Medicaid. Come spring, when large checks start arriving, they’re expecting to get kicked off, and are preparing to purchase insurance plans for their children but not themselves.
Until then, they’re trying to make as little money as possible. The temporary solution makes Caldarone feel like the couple is “trying to get away with something.”
“How cruel is it that we have to play this game?” he asked.
State officials say the number of people who leave the insurance marketplace is likely to grow. More people are expected to disenroll in the weeks to come as they receive their first bill in the mail.
“Just yesterday, somebody pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey, I got a plan. I paid for a month, and I don't know how I'm going to keep doing it. I'm going to end my coverage,’” Vermont Health Advocate Mike Fisher said in a recent interview.
Congress has been in a partisan battle for months about the subsidies. Democrats blocked a federal budget plan and shut down the government in a bid to extend them last year before agreeing to a spending deal with Republicans in exchange for a vote on the matter. A bill to extend them for three years has since passed the House, but is stalled in the Senate.
In the interim, a handful of states have decided to partly backfill the federal subsidies, although New Mexico is alone in replacing them entirely. But Vermont, which is facing its toughest state budgeting cycle in years, has not followed suit.
Democratic lawmakers, Republican Gov. Phil Scott and health advocates have broadly agreed that the state can’t afford to fill the gap. A recent estimate from state officials pegs the cost of the subsidies at roughly $72 million.
“I think many of us just consider that to be, you know, significantly more than the state taxpayer could pick up the tab for,” Fisher said.
Vermont does have some cash to spare. But health care, like so many other priorities, is taking a backseat this year as the cost of the state’s K-12 education system once again dominates the conversation in Montpelier. Lawmakers are currently considering the governor’s proposal to spend over $100 million in surplus funds to soften another property tax hike.
