The numbers are in, and they are devastating. 5,000,000 Americans have dropped their Affordable Care Act coverage. Here’s why. Premiums on these plans doubled, on average, from last year to this one. Deductibles hit a record high. And families who were getting by suddenly found a monthly bill they simply could not pay.  So they did the only thing they could. They gave up the coverage they needed. And it did not have to be this way. The reason costs exploded is that Trump and Republicans in Congress let the tax credits that kept these plans affordable expire. We fought to extend them. We warned, for months, exactly what would happen if those credits went away. Republicans pushed their agenda through anyway, in their Big Ugly Bill, and chose tax breaks for billionaires over keeping a working family’s doctor visit within reach. Now look at how they’re trying to spin it. The administration wants you to believe this drop is about fraud. That’s nonsense and they know it. Independent health policy experts have looked at the data and reached the same conclusion. People did not disappear because of some crackdown. They disappeared because they could not afford the bill anymore. When you double someone’s premium, they drop the plan. This is not complicated. It is as cruel and cynical as it gets. And the people who did this are going to answer for it. npr.org/2026/06/26/nx-s1-586…