Sarah Boden and Drew Hawkins, Gulf States Newsroom
Last 12 months was a tricky one for farmers. Amid falling prices for commodity crops akin to corn and soybeans, rising input costs for provides like fertilizer and seeds, in addition to the Trump tariffs and the dismantling of USAID, many farms weren’t worthwhile final 12 months.
And now, the improved Affordable Care Act subsidies that many Americans, together with farmers, relied on to buy medical health insurance are gone, having expired at the end of December.
James Davis, 55, who grows cotton, soybeans, and corn in northern Louisiana, mentioned he didn’t know the way he and his spouse would afford protection. Their share of their insurance coverage premium quadrupled for 2026, leaping to about $2,700 a month.
“You can’t afford it,” Davis mentioned. “Bottom line. There’s nothing to discuss. You can’t afford it without the subsidies.”
More than 1 / 4 of the agricultural workforce purchases medical health insurance by way of the person market, in response to an analysis from KFF, a well being info nonprofit that features KFF Health News.
That 27% fee is far greater than the general inhabitants’s — solely 6% of U.S. adults have non-group coverage.
Farmers are used to dealing with challenges akin to unpredictable climate and fluctuating commodity costs. But the lack of the improved subsidies, coupled with difficult financial situations, will make protection unaffordable for a lot of.
Without main intervention from Washington, farmers say they’ll have to decide on between being uninsured or leaving the farm work behind for a job that provides medical health insurance.
A Gamble for Farmers
Farming is harmful work. Agricultural employees spend a lot of their time exterior and uncovered to the weather. Many of their duties can result in damage or sickness. They drive and function heavy equipment, work with poisonous chemical substances, and deal with giant animals.
The fee of work-related deaths for farmers is seven times the national average.
The monetary toll of non-fatal farm accidents can also be vital. A study from the University of Nebraska Medical Center discovered that the common price of a farming damage was $10,878 in medical care and $4,735 in misplaced work.
It’s important that farmers should purchase complete insurance coverage, mentioned Florence Becot, a rural sociologist and affiliate professor of agricultural well being and security at Pennsylvania State University, the place she research the social and financial wants of farm households.
In a 2022 study, Becot discovered that greater than 20% of U.S. farm households had medical debt exceeding $1,000 and that greater than half weren’t assured they might cowl the prices of a significant sickness or damage.
“That shows you the level of vulnerability and concerns that farmers are facing,” she mentioned.
Mental well being can also be a priority. Farmers are roughly twice as prone to die by suicide in contrast with the final inhabitants. Mental well being hotlines that serve rural communities have seen an uptick in calls.
These considerations round farmers’ increased emotional distress, coupled with a rise in bankruptcies, conjures recollections of the farm disaster of the Eighties, mentioned Michael Klein, a vice chairman on the trade group USA Rice. During that decade, there was a raft of foreclosures, and hundreds of farmers took their own lives.
“We’re really afraid of what’s going to happen,” Klein mentioned.
Farmers might be reluctant to acknowledge that they depend on government-subsidized insurance coverage, mentioned Meghan Palmer, 43, who runs a dairy farm in northeastern Iowa together with her husband, John, 45.
“We’re not handout-takers,” Palmer mentioned.
More than 40% of dairy farmers lack medical health insurance — one of the highest rates amongst all agricultural sectors.
But going uninsured just isn’t an choice for the Palmers.
During their first 12 months of marriage, the couple recalled, they had been uninsured and needed to pay out-of-pocket for 2 surprising well being crises: Palmer had an appendectomy, and her husband wanted stitches after getting kicked within the face by one among his cows.
“It was stupid of us,” Palmer mentioned of the choice to forgo protection.
But this 12 months, the mixed out-of-pocket month-to-month price of their plans is rising by greater than 90%, to $368.18. Their complete 2026 deductible is $7,200.
Palmer is a registered nurse who picks up shifts on an as-needed foundation, permitting her the pliability to prioritize her work on the farm. She’s now trying to find a job with well being advantages. But she worries a job that doesn’t permit her to maintain up with the farm work will create a better burden for her husband.
“John is working exhausted most of the time,” she mentioned. “That’s when mistakes get made and you end up in the ER.”
Political Consequences
Even after the improved subsidies expired on the finish of 2025, the Palmers estimate their earnings will nonetheless be low sufficient that they’ll qualify for some tax credit to buy protection.
However, underneath the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, repayment limits are being eliminated, so if the Palmers have a surprisingly worthwhile 2026, they’ll be compelled to pay some, and even all, of that subsidy again at tax time.
A farmer’s earnings can range drastically 12 months to 12 months, Becot mentioned, partly as a result of commodity costs can fluctuate quickly.
Some farmers would possibly intentionally select to not broaden their companies, as a result of an excessive amount of revenue would possibly imply they lose entry to well being care subsidies.
Farmers who’re insured by way of Medicaid have related considerations, Becot mentioned. But prioritizing well being care affordability by suppressing operational development can have long-term penalties for a farm’s success.
Palmer, in Iowa, and Davis, in Louisiana, are each upset that lawmakers aren’t extra delicate to the financial calls for of farming and the way these have coincided with rising well being prices.
President Donald Trump just lately pledged $12 billion in one-time bridge payments to row crop farmers, however that’s not going to cease well being care prices from ballooning.
Republicans are conscious that well being care affordability is an issue and have put forth proposals, mentioned Donna Hoffman, a political scientist on the University of Northern Iowa. But most don’t assist extending the improved ACA subsidies, as a result of they don’t see them as an excellent resolution to the issue of rising well being care prices.
This article is from a partnership that features the Gulf States Newsroom, NPR, and KFF Health News.