New reporting from the Washington Post reveals how the skyrocketing premiums North Carolina families are facing will be a major electoral liability for Michael Whatley, who is siding with Washington Republicans who doubled health care premiums for nearly a million North Carolinians.

As many North Carolinians are forced to pay twice as much for their health care as a result of Republicans’ policies, health care is going to be a top issue in the U.S. Senate race.

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Washington Post: The health care battle fueling the shutdown roils North Carolina politics

Katie Tarrant | November 10, 2025

• Lea Charlton and her husband had grown used to finding ways to offset the “huge amount of money” she says treatments for her heart condition required. She and her husband even downsized their house a few years ago.
• When she found out last year that she qualified for an Affordable Care Act health plan subsidized by tax credits, she felt relieved.
• That relief turned to alarm when the 60-year-old former occupational therapist checked her 2026 premium on the federal marketplace.
• The price was $1,825.82 per month, double her last plan.
• “It’s seriously horrifying,” said Charlton, who has had several strokes in the last few months. “We may have to sell the house again, but we will lose so much money we poured into it after Hurricane Helene.”
• The price increase is due to the end of an expanded Affordable Care Act tax subsidy program, which, barring congressional action, will expire at the end of 2025.
• Insurance companies have assumed that the enhanced subsidies will sunset as planned and that the number of people enrolled will shrink, leading to higher premiums for 2026 plans.
• In North Carolina, almost 1 million voters receive ACA subsidies, accounting for 10 percent of the population; more than 888,000 people in the state receive enhanced premium tax credits, according to an analysis by KFF, a health care research organization. A separate KFF study found that marketplace customers who received the enhanced subsidies will have to pay as much as 114 percent more to have insurance next year.
• Former North Carolina governor Roy Cooper, the Democrat running to replace Tillis, has argued during his campaign that the OBBB puts access to health care in danger. He said he supports the extension of ACA tax credits, adding that North Carolinians “simply cannot afford the skyrocketing health care costs we’re about to see” due to the expiring subsidies.
• At a late October news conference in North Carolina Democrats’ headquarters, Democratic state Sen. Gale Adcock, formerly a nurse practitioner, pointed to the shutdown battle as proof that Democrats are the defenders of health care.
• “It’s clear Republicans don’t want you to have affordable health care,” Adcock said.
• Charlton, however, believes health care will be a big issue on the minds of voters next year, especially because rising premiums are intrinsically linked to the cost of living. She thinks the burden of increased health care costs for low- to middle-income families in her deep red area could be the tipping point that makes some of her triple-Trump-voting neighbors turn away from Republicans, and she argues there has already been a tide change.
• “We are surrounded by middle- to lower-income families, and it appears to me that they are struggling and will really struggle,” she said. “What they are really going to pay attention to is their pocketbook.”

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