The Landlord Lens - Why Healthcare Costs Just Became a Landlord Problem

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

Millions of renters are about to get squeezed not by rent prices, but by healthcare costs. The federal government reopened without extending enhanced ACA subsidies, and that decision directly affects renters’ financial stability. Since renters are already three times more likely to be uninsured than homeowners, even small changes to ACA subsidies can have big consequences for rent payments, delinquencies, and turnover.In this episode of Landlord Lens, we break down:• Why renters are far more exposed to health insurance loss• Which rental types are at highest risk when subsidies shrink• What happens if enhanced ACA subsidies expire on December 31• How rising healthcare costs translate to missed rent• Practical steps landlords can take to keep tenants stableThis isn’t just a healthcare debate — it’s a rent roll issue. Strong renter health coverage leads to stable occupancy, fewer delinquencies, and better long-term cash flow. Weak coverage does the opposite.

The ACA subsidies, which the Democrats were hoping to extend as a result of this shutdown, are not going to be extended as of today. As a landlord, how much should you be concerned with your tenant's financial well-being outside of paying rent? Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Landlord Lens. We are joined, as usual, by our fantastic co-host, Seamus Nally. also our CEO, Seamus, how are you today? Good, John. I really appreciate the warm introduction. Always, always. I always want to warmly welcome you to the show.

Because we're going to be talking about a cold topic, which is the ACA fight that had stalled our government for, what was it, 30 some days now. And so the ACA subsidies, which the Democrats were hoping to extend as a result of this shutdown, are not going to be extended as of today. so what does that mean for your tenant's checking account that's what we're going to be talking about today that sounds good and for those of you that might have watched our last video about the government shutdown you know that a lot of the government reserve funds for housing vouchers was going to run out the 15th so i know a lot of individuals are probably quite excited about that that we're going to it seems like just dodge what would be a large bullet from that standpoint yep But ACA, yay. So that's one win. ACA and the expiration of those subsidies, I think brings a really interesting conversation into light as a landlord, which is how much should you be concerned with your tenants' financial well-being outside of paying rent?

Right. And I wouldn't even say outside of, I think a lot of these things play into each other, at least many landlords. I've seen a lot of comments, for instance, of my tenants are always late, but they just bought a new car. Right. And what the ACA subsidy expiration means for many people is a doubling of health insurance premiums, which looks a lot like a car payment, a brand new car payment on that account. Yeah, absolutely. And as a landlord, you then have to decide how do I react, right? Or how. How will that even change my rental market? Yeah. Right? As other expenses go up, is it going to change affordability for my place? And am I going to have tenants that run into challenges in the near future, right, as these start to expire, I think December 31st. Yeah, yeah.

At this point is the expiration date. As that happens and we go into this new year, what is this crunch going to do on their ability to pay rent? Right. Which is pretty unclear at the moment. But it, I think you can ask yourself based on your rental and the types of tenants you attract for your rental, your rentals, you can start to think, okay, is, are my tenants the type of people who might just not buy health insurance if they're independent and not getting it through an employer? Are they the type that will definitely need it? And you're going to see that big increase. I see a lot of like self-employed folks are going to be really hard impacted by this because their employer is not going to shield them. They are their employer. So there's some, like, specific things you can probably make guesses about your tenants and how it's going to impact their checking account an ability to pay rent.

Yeah. And then the question really is, how do you react? Yeah. Right. What do you do as a landlord? One of the things that I think is interesting is we've often as landlords looked at a rent to income ratio, right, to make decisions on affordability for our property. And what's so interesting is just rent to income with all the other expenses that are now piling up, right? including health insurance, which it doesn't matter if you're a corporation or you're an

individual, those just keep going up, up and up. It feels like a simple rent to income ratio is certainly not enough any longer. No. And I think you, most landlords who have been in it for a while, have been in the game for a while, probably assume that a good rent to income ratio is about one, one to three, right? Yeah. And that, especially in high rent markets, has been creeping up as a ratio, right? you start to accept, okay, here's a 50-percenter, but their income's really good, or here's a 50-per-ter with a really great credit score, or here's a 50-per-per-per-ent are employed by this employer,

and you make excuses and you kind of crunch down what their discretionary spend would be outside of rent and make yourself kind of vulnerable to these sorts of events that are creating a crunch on the renter. Absolutely. Some of our audience is definitely kind of wistfully looking off into the distance, thinking the good old days where three-to-one. One to three made sense, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, we're one to three made sense and was the right path. So, you know, I think I'm of the of the mindset that you can only concern yourself with your tenant's finances so far. And so from that perspective, I think it is valuable for you to be flexible with a payment plan at times when someone can't afford the rent, maybe all up front. I would not extend that payment plan over a month, though. That puts you in a risky situation. But I think splitting up a rent payment, right,

to happen over a couple of weeks maybe as opposed to just on the first of the month when there is sort of a medical, I would say emergency, right? A unforeseen out-of-pocket expense makes a lot of sense. I don't think as a landlord, like I'm not planning to react with any of my tenants right now. I don't know my tenants' health insurance situations. I have no desire to know anything about their health insurance or their health insurance or medical records or any of that situation because I really view that as an area where they're going to have to personally just budget to make the property work.

Yeah, and I think that's a really good way to go forward is don't over concern yourself with it, but be open, right? Be open to the conversations they might bring to you in cases of hardship. Yeah, look for compassionate solutions, right, especially for a tenant who's fantastic in all other, all other aspects, right? Taking good care of your property, good communicator, right? If there is a challenge that comes up, they're traditionally paying rent on time. That is typically worth the flexibility. Yeah.

Now, I'm interested, too, you mentioned how do I respond as a landlord, right, in my specific cases with the tenants I have currently occupied. But if you, you know, maybe you have a lease renewal coming up and you're bringing new eyes to look at your rental market. Let's say this subsidy does not get extended and you're looking at, you know, three, five, six hundred extra dollars now being siphoned off by a health insurance company. How does your rental market change? What should you expect? You know, like I was saying, I would never ask an application, right? Someone's health insurance situation necessarily. But what I do think is important is for you to look at the trade lines on that credit report, right?

What are people spending money on and not just rely on that rent-to-income ratio to tell you the full picture? I think that can help you to better understand whether or not your property is going to be affordable, right? Are there car loans on there? What's the personal credit debt? Are there even loans or aspects showing up that are related to medical, right, expenses, just to give yourself a better idea of what their ability to afford rent actually is or just even prompt conversations with them. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me. The last thing we'll share with you guys, and this is to maybe invite you all to look at your own portfolio, is the types of renters and the rate at which

they're uninsured by property type. So the lowest share of renters that are uninsured is going to be found in your multi-family and that's anything more than four units defined in our data set here that's 10 percent so one out of 10 of those renters are uninsured comparing that to single-family renters which a lot of our listeners are single-family renters or owners that's 13 percent uninsured and then your two to four unit renters are mostly Medicaid which are not likely to be impacted by by these ACA changes so you're probably I mean it's a small amount rate-wise but single-family renters, it looks like, are a little bit more exposed to this.

Slightly higher risk, and typically that's because the more suburban, rural locations are more less likely to have a job where maybe the company's covering the benefit. Yep. Well, John, the best part about these videos and conversations we have is they're subject to be completely wrong before we even publish

because there's still the House vote to get passed, but always important to think about, you know, what is impacting the rental environment that those of us are operating in. Absolutely. Yeah. And what our tenants are paying does impact it, whether or not we should be concerned with ourselves directly. Yes.

Whether we want it to or not, we are on the hook at times. Well, so thanks so much. You guys leave some comments about what you guys anticipate changing, or if you guys have any plan changes to how you're managing your rental business, please leave a comment and like and subscribe for more content like this. TurboTenant is the all-in-one platform for landlords to manage their rental properties. From vacancy to tenancy, we have you covered with industry-leading tools and expert advice. Landlord better from anywhere for free at turbotenant.com.