If health insurance subsidies end, people could see higher prices, coverage loss
U.S. government tax credits for health insurance premiums are set to expire at the end of 2025, potentially leading to increased costs and loss of coverage for millions of people next year, experts say.
Affordable Care Act tax credits to reduce the price of health insurance premiums were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic by the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, and then extended through 2025 by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. According to a Sept. 19 Newsweek article, if Congress does not include these subsidies in next year’s spending bill—which needs to be passed by Oct. 1—premium prices could increase by 75% across the U.S., and even more in certain states.
“Any time there is uncertainty in an insurance market, most insurers hedge their bets and raise premiums to provide more buffer against that uncertainty,” said Benjamin Sommers, Huntley Quelch Professor of Health Care Economics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in the article. In a previous study, Sommers and his colleagues estimated that ending the tax credits could lead to 3.7 million people losing health care coverage and becoming uninsured.
Read the Newsweek article: Health Insurance Premiums Could Rise More Than 80% Next Year
