Pulling from a 401K. Going back to work. ACA costs worry self-employed.

Chrysa Ostenso expects to pull money from her 401(k) to pay for the $1,500-a-month health insurance she’ll get next year when the Affordable Care Act enhanced tax credits end.

She and her husband operated his optometry practice in rural Wisconsin for 35 years before he died a few months ago. With the tax credits, they paid as much as $500 for insurance. Before the tax credits were created in 2021 to help more people get insurance during the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost was closer to $2,000 a month.

Now, as Ostenso, 62, works to wind down and sell the business without him, she got a letter notifying her that without the enhanced credit, a plan covering just her will cost $1,500 a month and come with a $7,200 deductible.

Roughly 22 million Americans receive the enhanced subsidies, which lower the cost of their ACA insurance premiums. About half of recipients are people like Ostenso, who run or work for small businesses or are self-employed, according to KFF. Learn more on what’s at stake for working families if Congress does not act to put subsidies back in place.