Legislators in both houses of Congress shut the government down for a record 35 days through October over health insurance subsidies.
And everywhere you look, the latest failed vote in one or the other house sparks an ominous-sounding headline about rising insurance costs as the end of the year creeps ever closer. That's when, as Overdrive reported back in May, the so-called enhanced subsidies first delivered to Affordable Care Act exchange insurance buyers in 2021 -- including about a quarter of owner-operators -- expire.
The annual open enrollment period for those plans, when current plan owners renew and adjust coverage for the following year, wrapped this week for coverage starting in January. Among ACA-plan owners, 65% of those who'd taken time to assess costs there reported substantial premium increases, according to Overdrive's recent health insurance polling.
Marc Ballard, longtime insurance broker and account manager for the Truckers Healthcare benefits arm of the National Association of Independent Truckers group, noted a twofold cost increase for many of those he'd talked to.
During the enrollment period so far -- it remains open through January 15 for new coverage starting February 1 on the federal exchange and in most state-run exchanges -- "the shopping part has been more of a challenge," he said, given smooth sailing on costs with subsidies delivered the last several years.
Owner-operators who've been auto-renewing "with a minimal increase if anything" are this year "looking at hundreds of dollars more a month," he said.
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Most ACA-plan owners Ballard's talked to "by and large want to try to stay on the ACA plans," he said, given they've gotten used to "those higher Gold and Silver plans, and paid a small premium" since 2021. "We've taken many to the lower-tier Bronze plans," he added, with higher deductibles and copayments, or otherwise tried to show options outside traditional insurance, such as health-share groups that have been on the rise since the ACA came into play more than a decade ago.
Both options Ballard characterizes as "better than not having insurance for those who have to have something."
Many Overdrive readers, however, appear ready to go without. Since the 2021 enhancement to ACA subsidies put them within reach for middle-income owner-operators, rates of the totally uninsured have fallen from roughly a third to 40% to just 23%, according to the most recent polling.
As part of that, though, we asked about plans for 2026 insurance coverage, where a far larger share reported expectations of just going without.
If those results hold, the health insurance landscape for owner-operators would essentially return to what it looked like in early- and pre-COVID years, when it was common for a third and more to report going without health insurance. In early 2021, for instance, 37% of owners reported no coverage.
The prospect for rising cash outlays for insurance comes at a time of more or less stagnant trucking rates and revenues, though recent signs could point to some recovery there. ATBS's average owner-operator client saw business income on a slow rise month by month over the year between July 2024 and June 2025, yet it amounted to an average $132 per month compared to the prior 12-month period. Slow indeed.
"Income is flat still for a lot of the independents," said Ballard, with many "walking a tight wire" trying to keep costs as low as possible.
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There's a chance Congress comes to a deal for an extension of the enhanced subsidies, yet Ballard's not exactly holding his breath. As do many owner-operators and their Congressional reps, he recognizes that delivering those savings comes at a cost for all of us: it's U.S. taxpayer dollars that offset premium costs.
In general terms, he added, subsidizing health-insurance purchasing this way hasn't had a material impact on the problem of rising underlying costs the ACA hoped to solve.
"Perhaps the subsidies get extended for a couple more years," Ballard said, "but we’ve seen how that has gone. Right now, it’s hard to say if it’s going to happen -- it’s something of a pissing contest" in Congress between the political parties, and "throwing more money at it for three more years" or however long "isn't going to solve the big issues."
During the open enrollment period this year, "we saw the enhanced subsidies get reduced," he added, but "the cost of the base plan is going way up. ... The bottom line is that insurance costs are just crazy."
He's seeing unsubsidized family rates at $3,000-$4,000 monthly in many instances. "That’s the real fine print," he said.
[Related: Ways to reduce health-insurance cost with plan choice, tax-deductible savings]
Find resources around health-insurance considers in the "Trucking and Other Insurance" section of Overdrive's Partners in Business, a comprehensive guide (for 2025 in a dynamic online library format) to execution of an owner-operator career. The owner-operator business services provider ATBS coproduces the guide, and is accessible directly via its website.
