States prepare for last-minute Obamacare deal

This is a KFF Health News story. One family in Virginia Beach, Virginia, just found out their health plan's deductible will jump from $800 to $20,000 next year. About 200 miles north, in Maryland, another household learned they'll pay $500 more monthly to insure their brood in 2026. And thousands of people in Idaho were greeted with insurance rates that'll cost, on average, $100 more every month. As shopping season opens for Affordable Care Act plans in some states, customers are confronting staggering costs for their health insurance next year. The extra federal subsidies put in place in 2021 that made coverage more affordable for millions of people will expire at the end of this year unless a gridlocked and idle Congress acts. With Democratic and Republican lawmakers at an impasse, the federal government shut down on Oct. 1, spurred by the need for an estimated $353 billion over a decade to continue providing enhanced ACA subsidies for roughly 24 million people. Both sides have...