91% of health care is subsidized. Is your coverage safe?

Most Americans believe that healthcare is private and prefer it in this way. Voting It constantly shows that the majority favors a system based on private insurance rather than government health care.

But here is a stunning reality: 91% of Americans receive government health confirmation.

If you are not among the uninsured or the few who do not receive subsidies, the dollars of governments help to pay your medical accounts – either your safety comes from an employer, a private care organization or the online market.

Now, as legislators face growing budget pressures, these subsidies (and your coverage) could be at risk. If the government reduces health care costs, your medical expenses could rise.

It follows a closer look at the five ways in which the US government finances health care. If you have health insurance, almost certainly benefits one of them:

1. MedicineThe Health Care Government Program for 65 years or older covers 67 million Americans at a cost of more than $ 1 trillion per year. About half registered are covered through the traditional service pay plan and the other half in privately managed Medicare Advantage designs.
2. Medicaid and chip Provide health coverage for about 80 million low -income Americans and people with disabilities, including tens of millions of children. Although 41 states have converted Medicaid programs private care organizationsThe cost remains public. The total Medicaid costs are $ 900 billion a year – the federal government pays 70% with states receding the rest.
3. The electronic healthcare market It is for Americans whose employer does not provide medical coverage or who are self -employed. This law on affordable care The program offers federal subsidies In 92% of the 23 million registered, who help reduce the cost of premiums and, for many, subsidize out -of -pocket costs. Congress’s budget office indicates that a permanent expansion of these subsidies, which are scheduled to end this year, will cost 383 billion $ in the next 10 years.
4. Veterans and military families They also benefit from government health care through Tricare and VA Care, programs covering about 16 million people at a combined cost of $ 148 billion for the federal government annually.
5. Health Insurance funded by employer It comes with an important but often overlooked, government subsidy. For Nearly 165 million American workers And their families, US companies pay the majority of their health insurance premiums. However, these dollars are excluded from employee taxable income. This tax break, which emerged during World War II and was officially codified in the 1950s, is subsidizing employees at an annual government cost of about $ 300 billion. For a typical family of four, this translates to about $ 8,000 a year added home pay.

With 91% of Americans taking some form of government health assistance, the idea that US healthcare is primarily “private” is an illusion.

Now, as the new administration is looking for ways to achieve the developing federal deficit, and these five programs (collectively funding for 9 out of 10 Americans) will be in Crosshairs.

Financial pressures: Why nobody is really safe

In February 2025, the Federal budget deficit reached $ 307 billionup to 4% compared to the previous year and almost 2.5 times the January deficit. Total federal spending increased to $ 603 billion, an increase of 6% annually, promoting the budgetary annual deficit to $ 1,147 trillion-a shocking 38% higher than the previous year.

As national debt increases, the same applies to interest payments for its maintenance. The US is now spending more on interest payments than Medicaid, and these expenses are quickly approaching Medicare levels.

Twelve percent of the federal budget is already going to debt payments, and this share is expected to increase abruptly. Many of the bonds used to finance the existing debt were issued when interest rates were much lower. As bonds mature and refinance with today’s highest rates, Federal interest payments are expected to be doubled within the next decade, according to the Congress Budget Office (CBO).

With the deficits of increasing and lending, most economists agree that this orbit is not viable. Legislators should ultimately accelerate the costs and subsidies of healthcare will be almost certainly among the first targets. Policy experts foresee Medicaid, which the body has already proposed to reduce $ 880 billion over the next decade, and ACA subsidies for out -of -pocket expenses will probably be the first in the fragment. But given the projection of the CBO, these cuts will not be the last.

One better way: three solutions to reduce healthcare costs without cuts

Cutting some or all of these healthcare subsidies may seem like the simplest way to reduce the deficit. In fact, it simply shifts the cost elsewhere, making medical care more accurate for everyone and increasing future government spending. Here is why:

• Elimination of subsidies does not eliminate the need for care. According to the Emergency Medical Therapy and Labor Act, hospitals should be treated with emergency patients regardless of their ability to pay. When millions lose insurance, they turn more towards Ers for medical care that cannot afford. The cost of this unpaid care does not disappear. It is transferred to government governments, hospitals and private insured patients through higher taxes, expanded hospital accounts and increased premiums.
• Delay of care increases the long -term cost. People who cannot withstand doctor visits omit preventive care, projections and first treatments. Management situations, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, then spiral in costly, life -threatening complications, including heart attacks, strokes and kidney failures, which ultimately increase government spending.

The solution does not cut the coverage. Corrects the main causes of high cost healthcare. Here are three ways to achieve this:

1. Treat the obesity epidemic

Obesity is the leading driver of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and breast cancer, killing millions of Americans and costing the US healthcare system hundreds of billions of a year. Congress can take two immediate action to reverse this crisis:

2. Improve the management of chronic diseases with technology

In any other industry, the widespread adoption of AI genetic technology is already increasing quality while reducing costs. Health care could do the same from Application of Genai for more efficient management of chronic illness. According to the control and prevention centers, improved control of these lifelong conditions could reduce the incidence of heart attacks, strokes, kidney failures and cancers by up to 50%.

With rapid and logical FDA approval, genetics and portable screens will revolutionize how to manage these conditions, providing real -time updates on patient health and detection when medication needs adjustment. Instead of waiting for months for their next visit to the office, patients with chronic diseases will receive constant monitoring, preventing costly and life -threatening complications. Instead of limiting the role of AI in health care, Congress can rationalize the process of approval of the FDA and provide NIH’s funding to accelerate these developments.

3.

According to today’s service remuneration system, doctors and hospitals are paid on how often they see patients for the same problem and the number of procedures performed. This approach rewards the volume of care, not the best and most effective treatments. A better alternative is a payment model for value such as capital, in which providers do better financially when helping patients healthy. To encourage participation, Congress will have to fund pilot programs and create financial incentives for insurers, doctors and hospitals who wish to go to this system. By aligning economic incentives with long -term health, this model would encourage doctors to prioritize the prevention and effective control of chronic diseases, eventually reducing medical costs by improving overall health.

The time of change, the defense is now

If Congress reduces healthcare subsidies this year, their recovery will be almost impossible. Once the cuts, economic and political pressures that drive them will only come into force will only intensify, making reversal unlikely.

The voices that shape this debate cannot come exclusively from the interest groups of the industry. Elected officials have to hear from 91% of Americans based on government health care for some or their medical coverage. Now is the time to talk.