ACA Costs Rise
Florida has the highest number of people in the country receiving health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. Last year, 4.7 million Floridians signed up for coverage. This year, extra ACA discounts ended because Congress let enhanced tax credits expire at the end of 2025. Those federal subsidies were added during the COVID pandemic to expand eligibility and to lower monthly premiums. Now that they are no longer in effect because Congress didn’t extend them, people having to pay the full premium themselves are encountering dramatic increases in prices even if they didn’t change plans.
Eric Rollings is a self-employed real estate agent in Orlando diagnosed with a congenital heart condition that requires treatment and medication. He says his Affordable Care Act insurance plan premium more than doubled this year to $1,362 a month. Lynnette Bidwell from Winter Garden worked in retail management before disability forced her to stop working. She needs regular medical care, but sticker shock from a steep increase in her ACA insurance premium led her to change plans, pushing her out of her longtime physician’s network. Engage Producer Richard Copeland sits down with Bidwell and Rollings to talk about the choices they’re being forced to make shaping their health and futures.
Scott Darius is Executive Director of Florida Voices for Health, a nonprofit advocacy organization working to improve health care outcomes for Floridians. Engage Producer Richard Copeland talks to Darius about the ripple effects he’s seeing beyond monthly premium hikes and what the year could look like if Congress doesn’t extend ACA tax credits and nothing changes.
Some groups argue that Congress should allow the temporary COVID-era ACA tax credits to expire as intended. Americans for Prosperity’s position is that the expiration will not blow up the cost of health care. Dean Clancy, Senior Health Policy Fellow at Americans for Prosperity, joins Engage from Sarasota to discuss why he says letting the temporary subsidies end could help long term and promote alternative options.
Historic Eatonville School Land Sparks Debate
Tensions are rising in Eatonville, the nation’s oldest incorporated Black town, over the future of land there that shaped its past. The Hungerford School property is more than 100 acres off I-4. The land was donated by the Hungerford family to the town of Eatonville in the 1800s. It later became the Hungerford School and served as the town’s first school for Black students for decades. After it closed in 2009, the buildings were demolished during the COVID pandemic.
Now Orange County Schools and the town of Eatonville are in a dispute that’s been going on for years over who should control the land and what happens to it. Most recently, critics of the plan to sell it to Dr. Phillips Charities for development question the financial benefit and how much it would actually bring in for the town in tax revenue. Central Florida Public Media Education Reporter Danielle Prieur joins Engage as the Mayor, Town Council, and School Board get ready for a key vote next week.
Why Fast-Food Resolutions Fail
The beginning of January is peak New Year’s resolutions season. It’s a time when many swear off fast food. Then the resolution starts to crumble. To understand what research says about the reasons fresh starts around fast food often fail, Ty Matejowsky, Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at UCF, joins Engage. He specializes in cultural anthropology and food studies.
