Nebraska For Us hosts panel on economic pain
Local coalition holds in-person roundtable discussion on rising costs
OMAHA, Nebraska (October 27, 2026)—From health care and prescriptions to groceries and gas, the cost of living continues to rise. Nebraska For Us hosted a panel of community members in Omaha Tuesday morning focusing on the impacts of those increasing costs on households and family budgets.
From agriculture and tariffs to rising diesel due to the war in Iran and grocery prices, the pain is being felt across the board and among multiple professions.
“Considering the fact that I lost $100,000 doing this job last year, it felt like now was the right time to retire,” local farmer Bill Armbrust said. “The tariffs have caused chaos in our market, and chaos does not play well with what your business needs. Farmers, suppliers, and processors have been caught in the middle of all of this. It is an impossible situation to plan in. We are at the precipice of the 1980s again in Nebraska and across the country.”
“Traffic is often like a pile-up at our pantry,” food pantry operations manager Tamara Bailey said. “It was about this time last year when things started getting really busy. People come from all over the Omaha metro area, no matter the time of the month. Lots of people have had their SNAP cut off or are waiting to have it restored. From October 2025 to October 2026, our pantry provided food to more than 15,000 people.”
With just a few days to go before open enrollment begins for Affordable Care Act Marketplace plans, the soaring cost of health care is also top of mind for hardworking Nebraskans who are trying to figure out how to stretch their paychecks far enough to cover all of their essentials.
“My family’s health insurance premium is rising nearly 25% in 2027,” Nebraska For Us State Director Angie Lauritsen said. “How do you even plan for that kind of increase? It is not just ACA plans getting more expensive, though. Workplace insurance plans are also rising, and Medicaid cuts are only beginning to take hold.”
In 2025, Congressmen Don Bacon and Mike Flood voted to cut $1 trillion from Medicaid and hundreds of billions of dollars from SNAP. Both programs have begun experiencing drops in enrollment as the state begins instituting cuts. Those figures are expected to continue falling in the months ahead. On top of that, they allowed tax credits for the Affordable Care Act to expire, leading to massive hikes in insurance premiums this year and continually voted in support of devastating tariffs.
Nebraska For Us focuses on the impact of federal economic policy and how cuts to key programs affect hardworking Nebraskans. Audience members had the ability to contribute to the discussion, as well, through questions to our speakers, along with sharing their own economic stories.
