The new year brings skyrocketing health insurance premiums for millions of Americans.

For Marketplace, I'm Nova Saffo and for David Brancaccio.

Enhanced subsidies for health insurance policies on the Affordable Care Act exchanges are set to expire at the end of today.

That means premiums are going up for many Obamacare enrollees.

Marketplace's Nancy Marshall-Genzor joins me now. Good morning, Nancy.

Good morning.

So how much will premiums rise after the subsidies expire?

Well, they're expected to more than double. And that's according to KFF, that's a nonpartisan health

research organization. KFF says the average premium will go from $888 annually this year to around $1,900 in 2026.

And who is facing the steepest premium increase? I'm thinking the middle class likely will be most affected.

Yeah, the subsidies were temporarily expanded during the pandemic to people making more than four times the poverty level.

And NOVA, that's $129,000 a year for a family of four.

They will be completely losing their subsidies.

And the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that about 4 million people

will become uninsured after the expanded subsidies expire.

And there's another hurdle here too, right, Nancy, the cost of health insurance is expected

to rise next year at the same time the subsidies are shrinking. Can you walk us through why that is?

Yeah, well, some healthy people are expected to drop their insurance if it gets too expensive

without the subsidies, and that leaves insurers with a smaller pool of sicker people who

really can't go without insurance. Insurers are expected to charge them more because they won't have the

healthier people in the insurance pool to balance them out. Also, some insurance companies are

pulling out of rural areas, and if there's no competition, the remaining carriers can charge

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