If Republicans let tax cut enhancements expire this year for Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces, “currently subsidized enrollees will see their monthly premium payments increas[e] by about 114%, on average,” states a major health research firm.
The possibility of these expirations are a major sticking point in the current government shutdown. So how did we get to this point?
At the height of the COVID crisis in March 2021, Congressional democrats passed the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion investment plan designed to buttress citizens, small businesses and the general economy. It was a much-needed response to the general patchwork of shutdowns that occurred across the nation, as state and local powers worked to protect the public from a new, deadly disease.
Within that set of big investments was legislation providing premium tax credit enhancements, which made health insurance policy prices much lower for buyers. Enrollment in ACA markets doubled.
It was entirely the creation of Congressional Democrats. We know this, because no Republicans voted for the vital legislation. Not. A. Single One.
So the G.O.P. essentially is just trying to kill some legislation they never much liked in the first place.
The bill that created these tax cut enhancements ensured that “more than 20 million people [could] afford health coverage in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces,” according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), an economic and social policy think tank.
If the G.O.P. won’t sign off on the health care tax credit enhancements, many people will be forced to choose between insurance and other necessities.
Insurance costs have already risen.
A 54-year-old man in Arizona told CBPP that if the enhancements expire at the end of this year, he’ll “have to cut costs elsewhere and that’s now digging into basic necessities, like, food, car, gas, rent.”
According to health research company KFF, the ACA marketplaces are already seeing an average jump of 26 percent in prices, charging about $625 a month for 2026.
It can get so much worse.
“If the enhanced premium tax credits expire at the end of this year,” declares KFF, “estimates that currently subsidized enrollees will see their monthly premium payments more than double, increasing by about 114%, on average.”
As early as mid-October, Politico ran an article that declared it was already ‘too late’ to extend the ACA credits without causing “major disruptions,” according to “some states and lawmakers.”
Presumably, the G.O.P. is worried about these tax credits costing the government a lot of money. But if they are that worried about funds, then they shouldn’t concern themselves with the wish to extend much more expensive tax kickbacks for themselves and their wealthy friends.
Republicans wish to renew the expiring sections of the old 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). A possible renewal may cost U.S. coffers between $4 trillion – $4.6 trillion over the span of a decade, reveals estimates from the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
So Republicans want millions of hard-working Americans to go without health insurance, so they can give Donald Trump another round of tax breaks. But why? A man who files for business bankruptcy six times can’t even handle the money he has now.
