Prime Highlights
- Rep. Diana DeGette and Colorado health officials call on Congress to renew expanded “premium tax credits” before expiring in 2025.
- Nearly 300,000 Coloradans would experience outrageous premium hikes and loss of coverage if the subsidies expire.
Key Fact
- Expanded “premium tax credits” were enacted in the American Rescue Plan and continued through the Inflation Reduction Act, set to expire at the end of 2025.
- Without rebates, premiums would double and even disappear for many Colorado families.
Key Background
Colorado state public health officers and Popular lawgivers are sounding the alarm over the brewing evening of enhanced” Affordable Care Act” decoration duty credits. originally rolled out under the American Deliverance Plan and extended again under the Affectation Reduction Act, they have brought business health plan content into reach for hundreds of thousands of Coloradoans.However, they’ll expire at the end of 2025 automatically, If Congress does not act.
Rep. Diana DeGette joined others to urge healthcare supporters to pressure Congress to act swiftly, warning that failing to extend the subsidies will result in exorbitant premium hikes. The premiums would rise as high as 28% by 2026, and double what they are today, some families will pay, Colorado Division of Insurance estimates had calculated. That would cause many to lose insurance, undoing gains to make healthcare more accessible.
The human cost is already manifest. Small business owner Chelsey Baker-Hauck described how excessive copays and premiums drained the life from her savings and retirement funds, leaving her in debt for medical treatment. She warned that without subsidies, treatment would practically be half of her paycheck, which she called unsustainable. Activists pointed out that her situation is all too common, particularly for working families who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid benefits but still cannot pay.
State officials mention that more than 300,000 Coloradans would be directly affected if the extended tax credits expire. They contend that expiration of the credits would roll back decades of progress toward affordable care with higher rates of being uninsured and economic stress for working families. Calls for legislative action can only be more pressing in light of a looming deadline.
