Nonprofit health foundations report unprecedented spikes in aid requests—months before federal subsidy expirations and Medicaid reductions threaten to widen care gaps nationwide.
Charities that help Americans pay for medical care say they are experiencing a dramatic increase in requests for financial assistance—an early warning sign of what public health experts fear could become one of the most significant medical-debt crises in years.
The surge comes before two major shocks scheduled for 2026:
- The expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, and
- Nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts were included in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Nonprofits warn that without congressional intervention, medical debt, delayed diagnoses, and preventable deaths could increase markedly.
“This is a national-scale alarm,” said Michael Sapienza, CEO of the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. “Our organization can’t handle much more demand.”
