How Soaring Costs Are Reshaping Health Care Access

Was Live Friday, January 16, 2026 | 11am PST

Guest Speakers

• Merith Basey, Executive Director, Patients for Affordable Drugs
• Dr. Neale Mahoney, Professor of Economics at Stanford University and George P. Shultz inaugural fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
• Anthony Wright, Executive Director, Families USA

Related Coverage

• YouTube Playlist: How Soaring Costs Are Reshaping Health Care Access
• ‘Paying More, Getting Less’ — America’s Flailing Health System

Event Overview

One out of every five dollars spent in the US is related to health care, according to a new KFF study. Health care expenditures are now 18% of America’s GDP.

Costs are expected to rise further as the ACA’s enhanced premium tax credits expire. As open enrollment ends this week in many states, millions of Americans enrolled in ACA plans have signed on to monthly premiums at double the cost. Four million people are expected to drop out of health insurance coverage entirely. And small businesses are scrambling to insure their employees even as premiums sharply rise.

Speakers this week will discuss the factors behind the high cost of coverage and care, including pharmaceuticals, and offer options for addressing the widening gap in health care access.

This is the first briefing in American Community Media’s three part series on affordability.

Presented by ACoM

Cover Image Credit: Canva Photos