Obamacare’s Future Success in Danger Without Extra Subsidies

The future success of the Affordable Care Act depends on Congress taking action to continue increased subsidies to people on individual plans, officials said Tuesday.

A record 14.5 million Americans signed up for Obamacare in the most recent enrollment period—in part due to those expanded tax credits, which went to 2.8 million more people in 2022 than a year earlier.

“We call on Congress to make permanent the ACA subsidies that are included in the American Rescue Plan. Subsidies that are currently lowering insurance premiums for millions of Americans and which are set to expire in December,” Vice President Kamala Harris said at a White House event Tuesday.

Those additional subsidies provide extra help to people at all income levels and went to households earning more than 400% of the federal poverty level for the first time. They are part of the $1.9 trillion pandemic stimulus package (Public Law 117-2) that took effect in March 2021. The extra Obamacare aid expires at the end of the year unless Congress acts.

Without the American Rescue Plan, “health-care subsidies aren’t where we want them to be, which means that some working families are still having trouble paying for their coverage,” former President Barack Obama said at the White House on Tuesday.

Obama said President Joe Biden “lowered the cost of health care even further” and “helped a record 14.5 million Americans get covered during the most recent enrollment period.”

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“We’re going to continue to try to break records when it comes to the Affordable Care Act,” Health and Human Services Department Secretary Xavier Becerra told lawmakers earlier Tuesday. However, “without the tax credit, many of these families—middle class families that have received affordable insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act—would not be able to hold it because it was too expensive.”

The HHS estimates 3.4 million Americans would lose marketplace coverage and become uninsured if the additional subsidies are allowed to expire.

“The least we can do is extend this support for middle income and low income Americans,” Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) said during a Finance Committee hearing Tuesday.

“Congress needs to act because there are too many families who count on us continuing those subsidies that have given them access to life-saving care,” Becerra told Bloomberg Law. “We’re going move forward with the authorities that we have with the resources that we have. But it sure would help if Congress can help us.”