Alaska
‘Punishing’: Alaska small-business owners consider next steps amid steep rises in health care costs
Thousands of Alaskans who purchase insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace will see their premiums skyrocket without the extension of subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year.
The expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits could cripple small businesses in Alaska, some owners say, as they face premiums that in some cases will triple year over year, eating away at their ability to keep their businesses afloat.
“We’re working tooth and nail every day to make our way so we don’t have to rely on any help and assistance,” said Brie Loidolt, who owns a bookkeeping business in Anchorage and is facing an increase of hundreds of dollars per month in her premium costs.
Congress is “just punishing us for being small-business owners,” said Loidolt, who has weighed closing her business in response to the rise in health insurance costs.
Extension of the tax credits was a top priority for Senate Democrats during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. But the shutdown ended Wednesday with no deal to extend the health care subsidies or provide any other measure to lower the cost of health care.
Congress now has until the end of the year to extend the credits — which were enacted in 2022 — or watch them expire.
Alaska’s U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has said she supports the extension of the tax credits, at least in the short term, to avoid the projected sharp price increase. U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan has also said he supports an extension of the subsidies. Alaska’s U.S. Rep. Nick Begich has not spoken in favor of their extension or responded to multiple interview requests on the subject.
The agreement to end the shutdown included a promise from the Senate majority leader to hold a vote on a proposal to extend the tax credits before the end of the year, but Alaskans are already being asked to make decisions about their 2026 coverage. For them, action from Congress can’t come soon enough.
“I need my government, specifically my congressional delegation, to speak for me concerning the levers of power in this country, and I feel absolutely abandoned,” said Mark Robokoff, who owns a pet supply shop in Anchorage and is staring down a more than 300% increase in the cost of insurance.
The impact of the elimination of the tax credits depends on the income, age and family size of the enrollee. Premium increases are greatest for Alaskans nearing retirement age who earn 401% of the poverty line or higher.
Of the roughly 25,000 Alaskans enrolled in plans purchased through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, many of those who will see the sharpest increase in insurance costs are owners of small businesses who say their contributions to the Alaska economy are on the line.
‘An entirely new calculus’
Robokoff said the monthly insurance premium for him and his partner is set to triple, going from $924 in 2025 to $2,886.
“This will pull the rug out from under me,” said Robokoff. “I thought I was doing the things that a society wants its members to do — create new businesses, create new jobs, improve the life of the surrounding community.”
Robokoff said that when he was younger, he went without insurance, but he now relies on medication that would cost thousands of dollars a month without insurance, so forgoing coverage is not an option.
Given the increase in the price of premiums, he said he will have to consider what changes to make in the business.
“It’s an entirely new calculus. Everything is going to have to be looked at, from the prices I pay for merchandise, the quality that I try to stock, the amount that I pay my employees to keep the best ones — every single aspect of the store is going to have to be re-examined,” he said.
Robokoff said his mindset so far has been a “fingers-crossed hope that Congress would not put us in this ridiculous situation.” He thought, “our situation is so drastic that the government can’t help but come to our aid.”
“That hope and surety is rapidly being stripped away,” he said, as lawmakers have repeatedly punted on an extension.
‘Cut us at the knees’
Loidolt, who owns an accounting firm that employs four people, said her insurance premiums are set to go up roughly $500 per month, or $6,000 for the year, without the subsidies.
She already pays $1,347 per month in premiums. Without the extension of the subsidies, she’ll be paying more per month for her health insurance than she spends on her mortgage.
“Who can afford to live when 30% of everything you bring in just pays for insurance and deductible?” Loidolt said.
Loidolt said she has tried to purchase a company plan for her business, but she learned that insurance companies largely don’t offer plans to companies in Alaska with fewer than five participating employees.
“So our hands are kind of tied there, too. It’s not like we have options and we’re choosing this more expensive option through the marketplace,” she said.
Loidolt recently suffered an accident that has left her with ongoing medical needs that would cost thousands of dollars a month without insurance. Going without insurance is not on the table, she said.
Given rising health care costs, Loidolt said she is considering shutting down her business, laying off her employees and ending the accounting services she provides to roughly 40 small businesses.
Loidolt said she thinks she could get a salaried job that comes with benefits, but closing her business would be “heartbreaking” and devastating for her clients.
“I feel like we’re part of the solution, and this is going to make us part of the problem,” she said. “We’re the people that are actually paying our bills every month. We’re not on assistance. We’re making it work, even with these ridiculous prices. We’re offering jobs with small companies. We’re offering competition to people so that the monopolies don’t take over. And they’re just going to cut us at the knees.”
[GOP plans to replace Obamacare have failed. Here’s what lawmakers propose now.]
‘It makes me want to throw up’
Nan Schleusner, a human resources consultant in Anchorage, said she and her husband — who are both sole proprietors — have relied on insurance purchased through the Affordable Care Act since the enhanced premium tax credits kicked in.
The tax credits made marketplace plans affordable for them for the first time, just as Schleusner and her husband were getting older and encountering more health concerns.
“Thank God” they got the insurance, Schleusner said, because in 2022, she was diagnosed with cancer.
“It was really wonderful when the enhanced premium tax credits took effect, because it helped with these extreme medical bills that we ended up having,” she said. “It was just that peace of mind, like, OK, it’s still a stretch — it’s not inexpensive — but we can do it.”
But now, Schleusner is facing $37,000 in annual premium payments and a $15,000 deductible for her family of three, for the cheapest plan on offer.
Schleusner said she is considering reaching out to some of the companies she consults for and asking to become their employee so she can join their insurance plan.
“I’ve been doing this 15 years, and I feel called to do it,” she said. “So I don’t want to give it up. It’s been some sleepless nights.”
Schleusner this year paid $1,380 per month for her family of three, or $16,560 in premiums for the year. To keep the same plan she currently has next year, she’d pay more than 300% of this year’s cost, with premiums totaling over $52,000 annually.
“It makes me want to throw up every time I look at it,” she said.
“There’s the affordability part, but there’s the ‘what on Earth is going on that this is costing $50,000 a year?’ That’s not a reasonable cost,” she said.
Alaska
Alaska sports notebook: Allie Ostrander finishes 4th at U.S. 6K Championships, Daishen Nix maximizes minutes in NBA Summer League action
In the town where NFL Hall of Famers are immortalized each year, Kenai’s Allie Ostrander added to her own illustrious resume over the weekend by coming in fourth place at the U.S. 6K Championships in Canton, Ohio, on Saturday. The Alaska Sports and High School Sports Hall of Famer clocked in at 18 minutes, 20 seconds, which was just 12 seconds behind the top finisher and her former college teammate at Boise State, Emily Venters of Utah.
“Nothing more fun than ripping sub-5 miles down the streets of Ohio and reaching my max heart rate with over a mile to go,” Ostrander said in an Instagram post. “I felt strong and am excited about the trajectory I’ve been on this year.”
Anchorage’s Daishen Nix made his 2026 NBA Summer League debut over the weekend for the Houston Rockets and reached double figures in both minutes played and points scored in the two games he appeared. On Friday, in a 97-86 win over the Denver Nuggets, he came off the bench and logged 10 points in 25 minutes. The next day, in a 102-89 loss to the Toronto Raptors, he played one less minute but tied for the third-most points on the team with 16, which included knocking down a trio of 3-pointers.
Anchorage basketball player Isaiah Moses recorded his fourth and fifth straight games of double figures in scoring and helped propel the Perry Lakes Hawks in back-to-back wins last week in the NBL1 Australia. In a 110-88 triumph over the Rockingham Flames on Thursday, he recorded 11 points and four assists. The former Dimond star and Gatorade Player of the Year logged 20-plus points for the fourth time in his last five games with 26 points in a 104-75 win over the Goldfields Giants on Saturday. Moses went 6-of-10 from behind the arc and nearly had a double-double with nine assists.
Anchorage’s Coen Niclai recorded his team-leading fourth home run of the season for the Wareham Gatemen in the Cape Cod summer baseball league this past Thursday. In the top of the fourth inning in a 4-2 loss to the Chatham Anglers, the two-time Alaska Gatorade Player of the Year and recent Oregon State University commit sent a fly ball soaring out of the park over right center field.
Juneau’s Hunter Carte entered elite company Saturday when he led the Auke Bay Post 25 Alaska Legion baseball team to a 10-0 victory over visiting East. The recent graduate, who helped lead the Crimson Bears to a 2026 high school state title, recorded the first no-hitter in Legion baseball in two years and the seventh since the league adopted the pitch count in 2018. With the win, the team extended its six-game winning streak and remains atop the league standings as the regular season nears a close.
No one envies the Alaska Legislature being called back into a second special session on the proposed liquefied natural gas pipeline. One wonders if legislators are being held hostage to the governor’s predetermined decision. While the benefits of an LNG project are easily imagined, the economic risks of the Alaska LNG project must not be ignored.
Alaskans are not assured that Glenfarne, the company that was granted 75% of this project in an undisclosed document, won’t just flip it — sell it — to another entity after it gains billions of dollars in concessions from Alaska. Why the sudden change by Glenfarne and the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation from saying no legislative action was needed to the recent assertion that billions of dollars in property tax reductions are now necessary? It is without question that local municipalities will collectively incur hundreds of millions of dollars in direct impact costs.
Will Alaska give away another resource “farm” again? How would Alaska respond if the LNG project stalls and our resource continues to be a stranded asset? No purchaser has signed on the dotted line to actually buy fixed quantities of our gas. Are prospective purchasers interested? Yes. Have they signed binding contracts? No.
Russia has natural gas pipelines flowing into China. Russia has substantial volume to sell, having lost its natural gas sales to Europe after invading Ukraine. China currently produces 60% of its oil and natural gas needs by fracking its resources in western China. What would keep the Chinese from selling their or Russian natural gas to Alaska’s potential customers in Asia?
Natural gas prices have remained steady, which says there is plenty of it. Can Alaska’s project, including costly export facilities, be built at a cost that allows it to compete?
Legislators, please respond. But don’t sell out the interests of Alaskans. Glenfarne’s and AGDC’s lack of truthful answers raises many red flags. The correct decision is to let Glenfarne pay for its project. If it can’t or won’t, it isn’t economic.
Patrice Lee is a 49 year resident of Alaska, a retired math and science teacher, and a former elected member of the Interior Gas Utility Board of Directors. She lives in Fairbanks.
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The intense marine heat wave conditions that began roiling the Bering Sea in about 2016 resulted in the lowest winter sea ice extent measured in 150 years, widespread bird and marine mammal die-offs, a drastic shift in fish populations and a crash of snow crab stocks.
Now new research is tying the marine heat wave to the recent collapse of Yukon River chinook salmon.
A study published in April, written by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center and University of Alaska Fairbanks, showed the correlation between the extreme heat wave conditions and the nosedive in Yukon River chinook stocks. The heat wave was accompanied by a dramatic increase in deaths of older juvenile and adult chinook that, had they survived, would have returned from the ocean to freshwater spawning grounds, the study found.
The study was published in the journal Ecological Applications.
The Yukon River’s runs of chinook, also called king salmon, have been in a long-term decline since their past heyday, when they numbered in the hundreds of thousands and the river was one of the biggest sources of that salmon species.
The sharp downturn in recent years resulted in a 2022 return that was the lowest on record. Widespread fishery closures have been in effect for years along the Yukon River system in both Alaska and Canada.
The study evaluated four general reasons for the sharp decline: poor juvenile “recruitment” into the ocean, which refers to the successful migration of surviving juvenile fish from freshwater; deaths of fish in the marine environment at the start of their migration back to freshwater; harvests that target the salmon; and bycatch, the unintentional harvest of salmon by commercial fishing vessels targeting other species, such as pollock.
Poor juvenile recruitment emerged as an important factor, which was to be expected, the study said.
“Not surprisingly, we found evidence to suggest that impacts operating in the early life stages have likely contributed to declines in run sizes over the past two decades, which is consistent with previous research,” NOAA Fisheries researcher Lukas DeFilippo, the lead author, said in a statement.
But the information about spiking mortality among adults and older juveniles was new, the NOAA scientists said. That new trend represents “an apparent shift in the critical life history stages and processes” for Yukon River chinook, and a potential bottleneck limiting population recovery, the study said.
Exactly how the heat wave conditions caused deaths of salmon at sea is yet to be determined, the study said. It listed several factors that could have worked in combination, including lack of suitable prey, infections by the parasite Ichthyophonus and other diseases, as well as increased energy demands brought on by warmer temperatures.
Harvests, either intentional or as bycatch, did not emerge as important factors in the recent Yukon chinook declines, the study found.
The study contained some warnings.
Even though the marine heat wave conditions have eased, the abundance of prey that salmon need in the ocean has not returned to normal, it noted. And mortality rates in those later life stages continue to be higher than they were prior to the latest heat wave.
And the heat problems for older salmon are likely to become more common in years to come, the study said.
“Given that marine heatwaves are expected to become more frequent and severe with continued warming . . . similar rises in mortality—and concomitant limitation of productivity and recovery potential—as described here could become increasingly common in the future,” the study said.
An earlier study by NOAA Fisheries and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game tied successive heatwaves in both the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska to sharp declines in chum salmon stocks. That 2023 study also pointed to higher mortality out in the ocean.
Originally published by the Alaska Beacon, an independent, nonpartisan news organization that covers Alaska state government.
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