The stories are starting to flood in of Donald Trump voters realizing in horror that when you vote for the guy who promised to gut the Affordable Care Act with no replacement plan in sight, you might lose your health insurance. Who could’ve guessed?
Across red America, the same refrain: Wait, this is hurting me?
Republicans in Congress appear ready to let critical ACA subsidies expire at the end of the year, and the fallout is landing hardest on their own voters—working-class families and retirees who depended on that support to keep coverage affordable.
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Meet some Trump voters who voted to vamoosh their health care.
There’s hairstylist Chrissy Meehan in Pennsylvania, who has a neck condition that requires surgery.
“The 51-year-old voted for Republican Donald Trump for president last year, something she said she’s almost embarrassed about now that the Republican-led government hasn’t renewed the subsidies that help her afford her coverage through the state marketplace,” reported the Associated Press.
“I work hard, and I’m trying to survive and do it the right way and pay my way,” Meehan said. “I don’t want free. I just want affordable for my income.”
Here she is thinking she needs special treatment because of her low income, and then voting Republican despite that. Bad move, Chrissy.
Let’s head down to Florida, where insurance agent Alan Reynolds’ family is about to get walloped.
“The loss of his wife’s subsidy means she is likely to pay about $1,200 or more each month, up from about $500 in 2024,” reported The Washington Post.
“I voted for Trump,” Reynolds said. “I didn’t expect this.”
Why, oh why, wouldn’t he expect this? Trump literally promised to get rid of the Affordable Care Act—without even a proposal for an alternative beyond “a concept of a plan.”
The irony, of course, is that this mess is disproportionately hitting Republican voters in Republican states.
At least two polls show that MAGA overwhelmingly supports keeping the ACA subsidies, which proves how deluded they are. If they want the government to help them out, they should be Democrats.
In Idaho, retired schoolteacher Bob McMichael is going to lose his and his partner’s health care.
“A few years after they retired, but before they were eligible for Medicare, McMichael, 63, and his wife, 62, got the cheapest plan they could find on the marketplace. It had monthly premiums of about $1,800, but Obamacare subsidies kept their monthly payments to about $50 a month,” reported the Idaho Statesman.
If that happens, McMichael and his wife plan to drop their coverage. He hopes they’ll find a cheaper plan, but he’s not optimistic. The plan they chose last year was the most affordable option, “other than not to have health care.”
McMichael taught in tiny Council, Idaho—the county seat of Adams County, which voted for Trump 76% to 21%. None of the stories featuring him (and there are several) indicate who he voted for, and as a teacher, there’s a nonzero chance he was one of the 21% who backed Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
But regardless of his own vote, the fact is that thanks to his neighbors, Idaho will be particularly hard-hit by the potential loss of subsidies.
McMichael might be one of the good ones—and now he’s collateral damage from his neighbors’ self-destructive efforts to deny themselves quality health care.
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These are people who now will have to weigh whether to buy groceries or see a doctor, or to even entertain the idea of coverage at all.
And people will die.
It’s an opening for Democrats to rebuild public trust around an economic populist agenda that centers on affordability and cost-of-living issues. It won’t reach everyone—the MAGA cult is resilient and deep. But peel away 5–10% of the Republican vote, activate some nonvoters, and it’s a whole different story.
