After months of debate, alterations and intra-party squabbling, Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill” was finally signed into law by President Trump last week. Conversations about the bill have mostly focused on the broad impact it will have on the nation as a whole — how much it adds to the deficit, how many people will lose their health insurance, what it means for America’s efforts to combat climate change, etc.
All of that is important, of course, and will affect costs and the overall state of the economy in major ways. But the zoomed-out focus has left a lot of Americans wondering how the bill will affect them personally and when they might start to see some of those effects. The sprawling 870-page mega-bill is packed with changes to health care, taxes, student loans and energy.
Here’s a rundown of some of the most important changes, when they go into effect and what they might mean for your wallet.
Health care
Some of the most controversial elements of the “big, beautiful bill” are the changes it makes to Medicaid, the government program that provides health insurance to low-income Americans. Those changes are expected to cause the number of uninsured people in the U.S. to increase by 12 million by 2034.
The law imposes new work requirements for Medicaid that obligate able-bodied adults to prove they have worked or volunteered for 80 hours each month in order to maintain their benefits. The bill mandates that the new work requirements go into effect in 2027, though that may not be when they ultimately kick in for everyone. States can opt to start their work requirements earlier. The law also allows states to request a one-year delay under certain circumstances. According to Axios, people likely won’t start actually losing their health coverage for failure to meet work requirements until late 2027.
Americans who get their health coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace could see their health costs go up much sooner. The bill did not extend enhanced premium subsidies for Obamacare, which were put in place under former President Joe Biden in 2021 and are set to expire at the end of this year. Congress still has time to renew these subsidies with separate legislation, but if they are allowed to expire, premiums for ACA health care plans are expected to increase by 75% on average, with people in some states seeing their payments more than double, according to analysis by the health care policy research group KFF.
The bill will also allow all people with bronze or catastrophic health care plans to take advantage of Health Savings Accounts for the first time, which can lead to significant tax savings, starting at the beginning of next year.
Clean energy tax credits
A full 80 pages of the bill are dedicated to listing all of the green energy tax credits, passed just three years ago under Biden, that will soon be eliminated. Tax breaks for electric vehicle purchases — up to $7,500 for a new EV and $4,000 for a used EV — that were initially set to last until the end of 2032 will now end on September 30. A tax credit that allowed homeowners to offset up to $1,000 of the cost of installing charging ports, also slated to last through 2032, will now expire in July of next year.
The bill also eliminates a host of tax credits designed to make homes energy efficient. Current tax breaks for green home improvements — including the purchase and installation of new air conditioners, water heaters, heat pumps, broilers, windows and doors — will all be eliminated at the end of this year. A separate tax credit for installing green energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal power in the home will also go away in January.
Tax changes
One of the most significant things the “big, beautiful bill” did was make many of the tax cuts that were passed during Trump’s first presidential term permanent, so some of its biggest impacts will be in allowing taxpayers to keep using tax breaks they have already been taking advantage of.
There were some new, headline-grabbing tax provisions that were included, though. The bill delivers on two of Trump’s campaign promises: no tax on tips and no tax on overtime. Both of those policies go into effect in 2026, but the bill includes language that allows taxpayers to “approximate a separate accounting” of their earnings that qualify for the deduction when they file their 2025 taxes. Both policies limit the amount that can be deducted ($25,000 for tips and $12,500 for overtime). They will also both expire in 2028 if they are not extended. A new rule allowing no tax on car loan interest, up to $10,000, goes into effect immediately.
Food assistance program
The bill includes big cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the food assistance program commonly known as food stamps. It will also expand work requirements to apply to SNAP recipients up to the age of 64 and those with children over the age of 14, who are exempt from the requirements under current law. The bill doesn’t provide an official date for when the new work requirement standards will go into effect.
The biggest cuts to SNAP funding, which are expected to cause millions of people to lose access to food assistance, don’t go into effect until 2028.
Student loans
The bill makes substantial changes to federal student loan programs that will affect how much money students are able to borrow and how they’ll have to repay their loans.
It creates new lifetime borrowing caps on loans for post-secondary education. Graduate students will be limited to $100,000 in loans, while doctoral and law school students will be limited to $200,000. It also eliminates all existing repayment plans, replacing them with a pair of new, less generous options. Any borrowers who are enrolled in an existing repayment plan — like the SAVE Plan or Income-Based Repayment Plan — will have until July 1, 2028 to switch to one of the new options. The current plans will no longer be available to new borrowers starting in July of next year.
