The Potential Side Effects of Halbig
The Halbig case, if it prevails, would have far-reaching side effects on the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate and the functioning of the individual insurance market.
The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
KFF’s policy research provides facts and analysis on a wide range of policy issues and public programs.
KFF designs, conducts and analyzes original public opinion and survey research on Americans’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with the health care system to help amplify the public’s voice in major national debates.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the organization’s core operating programs.
The Halbig case, if it prevails, would have far-reaching side effects on the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate and the functioning of the individual insurance market.
The brief provides an overview of what consumers can expect during the second annual Open Enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which runs from November 15, 2014 through February 15, 2015. It is the second opportunity for uninsured individuals to enroll in private insurance coverage, premium tax credits and cost sharing subsidies and the first time that people newly insured in 2014 can renew their health plan coverage and subsidies. It also overlaps with the start of the tax filing season, during which subsidized individuals will undergo tax reconciliation of their 2014 financial assistance and the individual responsibility provisions of the ACA will be enforced.
This analysis of enrollment in Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace health plans finds a record 24.3 million people enrolled in 2025, more than double the total in 2020, with most of the growth occurring in states won by President Trump in the 2024 election. In six states, enrollment more than tripled from 2020 to 2025: Texas, Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana, Georgia, and Tennessee.
Enrollment in Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace health plans reached a record 24.3 million people, more than double the total in 2020, with most of the growth occurring in states won by President Trump in the 2024 election, a new KFF analysis finds.
In his latest column, President and CEO Drew Altman shows how proposals contained in the House reconciliation bill could result in a one-third reduction in ACA Marketplace enrollment. “While all eyes are on the big Medicaid cuts being proposed in the House,” he writes, “significant changes are also being proposed that together would dramatically reduce enrollment in the ACA Marketplaces.”
In his latest column, President and CEO Drew Altman discusses how, with nearly half, or about 10 million MAGA supporters and Republicans receiving coverage through the ACA Marketplaces, the policy changes and cuts being considered by Republicans to the Marketplaces will directly affect their own voters. Altman writes: "Republicans are no longer interested in repealing the ACA but seem comfortable shrinking it significantly if they can, so long as they don’t touch protections for pre-existing conditions, which is now a political third rail."
This analysis estimates that 48% of adults under age 65 with individual market coverage are either employed by a small business with fewer than 25 workers, self-employed entrepreneurs, or small business owners. Because the vast majority of this coverage is purchased through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplaces, changes to the ACA, including the expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits at the end of this year, would have significant implications for what small business owners and workers spend on their health care.
This analysis examines the share of adult workers in occupations that rely more heavily on individual market coverage for health insurance, which is largely made up by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplaces.
Health-Insurance-Exchanges-or-Marketplaces-HEALTHREFORM Download…
This data note estimates how tax credits premiums will change for people at various ages and incomes under the temporary boost in subsidies included in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the COVID-19 relief plan signed into law in March 2021.
© 2025 KFF