As the window for Americans to enroll in an Affordable Care Act health plan closes today in most states, millions of Americans remain in limbo as Congress debates whether or not to do so. extend tax subsidies designed to reduce the cost of Obamacare insurance.
Congress has been engaged in a standoff for months over the fate of the enhanced ACA premium tax credits, which expired December 31. THE fight for subsidies was at the heart of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, lasting six weeks.
The house approved a measure last week to extend the tax credits for three years after 17 Republicans joined Democrats to force a vote on the issue. Yet the extension faces considerable difficulty in the Republican-controlled Senate, which previously rejected a separate plan to extend the appropriations for three years.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is working on a compromise that includes a two-year extension of ACA subsidies, but GOP senators said Thursday that progress has stalled.
Furthermore, President Trump announced Thursday a health care proposal which, according to the White House, would “send money directly to the American people, lower health insurance premiums, and reduce kickbacks that raise insurance premiums.”
In the meantime, time is running out for Americans to make decisions about their coverage. The deadline to sign up for health insurance through the ACA Marketplace is January 15 for most states. However, 10 states offer an extended enrollment window to give residents more time to select a plan.
States with extended ACA enrollment deadlines, according to healthinsurance.org:
- California: January 31
- Connecticut: January 31
- District of Columbia: January 31
- Massachusetts: January 23
- Illinois: January 31
- New Jersey: January 31
- New York: January 31
- Pennsylvania: January 31
- Rhode Island: January 31
- Virginia: January 30
For those who are not yet enrolled in an ACA plan, the higher costs will definitely be a consideration. The nonprofit health group KFF previously estimated that, barring congressional action, Obamacare premiums could more than double this year for the more than 20 million Americans who previously benefited from the tax credits.
“The end of open enrollment in many states and the most recent enrollment numbers confirm what people across the country already feel: We are in a health care affordability crisis,” said Michelle Sternthal, interim senior director of policy and strategy at Community Catalyst, a health care advocacy group. “When Congress failed to expand enhanced premium tax credits, premiums soared overnight.”
Some people drop their ACA coverage due to higher costs. Florida resident Stacy Kanas, 59, told CBS News her family was dropping their ACA plan after learning their premiums were going to increase.
“That’s why we’re choosing not to be covered at this time,” she said. “It’s prohibitively expensive.”
ACA premiums for “silver” plans, the second-cheapest Obamacare coverage, jumped nearly 22% in 2026, according to a recent analysis by the Urban Institute. For comparison, the nonpartisan think tank projected that health insurance costs for employer-sponsored plans would increase no more than 7% this year.
Data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services shows that 22.8 million people had enrolled in ACA marketplace plans as of Jan. 12, down 1.4 million from the number of Americans enrolled in Obamacare, as the health plans are called, a year ago.
Can Congress extend appropriations after open enrollment ends?
Technically, there is no deadline for Congress to extend the ACA tax credits, leaving the door open for a congressional solution, experts noted.
“ACA premium subsidies are refundable tax credits, calculated on an annual basis,” Larry Levitt, executive vice president of health policy at KFF, said in a December blog post. “Thus, an extension could occur even after the deadline to enroll in coverage and be made retroactive to January 1.”
If the credits are preserved, Levitt said the state and federal ACA marketplaces would update their systems and open enrollment would be expanded to give people more time to sort through plan options. However, if a resolution comes later in the year, it could make things more difficult, Levitt said.
“Any mid-year changes to the ACA tax credits would complicate logistics and slow the reopening of enrollment and premium relief,” he said in a message.
Source | domain www.cbsnews.com
