Ten Reasons NOT To Revive Enhanced Obamacare Subsidies
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Ahead of a potential vote on a three-year revival of now-expired enhanced premium subsidies, below please find ten reasons why reviving this temporary COVID-era program would be unwise:
- No Impact on Gross Premiums in 2026: CBO’s cost estimate admitted that the bill would have no effect on gross premiums for the current plan year, “because those premiums have already been set.”
- Expands and Entrenches Obamacare: The bill would for the second time extend COVID-era enhanced subsidies that were designed to be temporary, amounting to a major entitlement expansion on the installment plan.
- Continues and Perpetuates Fraud: The bill contains no reforms to address the fraud that the Congressional Budget Office, the Government Accountability Office, and other independent estimates have said plague insurance Exchanges.
- Funds Plans Covering Services Americans Find Morally Objectionable: Pro-life groups note that Obamacare subsidizes plans that cover abortion—in recent months, Maryland has used Obamacare dollars to fund abortion tourism for out-of-state residents, and encouraged other blue states to follow suit. Moreover, Obamacare subsidies have also been used to fund transgender procedures that many Americans find objectionable, and political indoctrination that violates the First Amendment.
- Increases the Federal Deficit: With the federal government over $38 trillion in debt, many would question the wisdom of raising the deficit by $88 billion to subsidize health insurance companies.
- Undermines Employer-Provided Health Coverage: CBO noted that under the bill, 2.1 million fewer Americans would have employer-sponsored coverage. Expanding and entrenching Obamacare will encourage more businesses to stop offering insurance and dump their workers on to the Exchanges.
- Increases Insurer Profits: The bill directs $88 billion in taxpayer funds to insurance companies. Because Obamacare allows them to keep one-fifth of premium dollars for overhead costs, the bill could see insurance companies receiving up to $17.6 billion in added profit—all at taxpayer expense.
- “Free” Health Coverage: The bill would revive the zero-dollar premiums for some enrollees that are anything but “free” for taxpayers—these plans have been a major source of fraud, and encourage individuals to retain their Exchange plan, even if they have other sources of insurance coverage.
- Welfare for the Wealthy: The bill would again lift the income cap on eligibility that Obamacare placed on its subsidy regime, allowing households with incomes in excess of $500,000 to qualify for “low-income” insurance subsidies in some instances.
- Raises, Rather than Lowers, Underlying Health Costs: The bill not only omits any reforms to lower the actual cost of health care—Obamacare’s subsidy mechanism, under which federal taxpayers subsidize every additional premium dollar, encourages health insurers to raise rates.