A Systemic ImpactWright warned that healthier folks falling off insurance coverage would place financial stress on the healthcare system as a whole. In 2025, more than 20 million Americans selected an Affordable Care Act (ACA) Health Insurance Marketplace plan as of 2025. When healthcare costs rise, small businesses lower the wages for workers or reduce the wage offering to new hires; worse, they lay off workers, or stop hiring. “I don’t think we’ve connected the dots yet from rising healthcare costs to a frozen labor market, but certainly the body of evidence we have suggests that higher healthcare costs mean lower wages and less jobs,” he stated. Recent polling has shown that 47% of people in this country are concerned that they’re not going to be able to pay for their healthcare costs in 2026, said Basey.