A government program that more than 600,000 South Carolinians rely on for health insurance remains at the center of the federal shutdown that began Oct. 1. It shows no signs of being resolved soon.

Driving the fight is a battle over enhanced federal health care subsidies, first implemented during the pandemic. The aid helps 24 million middle- and lower-income Americans to afford private health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare as it’s widely known.

Congressional Democrats say they won’t go along with any plan to reopen the government that doesn’t reverse earlier GOP legislation that ended the enhanced subsidies — threatening 17 million ACA participants with triple-digit rate hikes heading into 2026.

Under the GOP plan, the average out-of-pocket annual co

See Full Page