Americans for Tax Reform opposes Senator Chuck Schumer’s proposed 3-year extension of expanded Obamacare subsidies.
ATR urges Senators to vote NO on Schumer’s plan to extend the enhanced Obamacare subsidies. .
The temporary, pandemic-era subsidies were enacted on a party-line basis in 2021 and extended in 2022. They are scheduled to expire at the end of this year, and Schumer’s bill will prolong them for an additional three years at a cost of over $35 billion annually and $350 billion over the next decade.
If Congress extends these enhanced subsidies, they will never go away.
The subsidies were marketed as temporary emergency measures. The pandemic is long over, but Democrats continue trying to extend these inflated credits. Taxpayer-funded transfers would flow directly to insurance companies, not patients, and continue to make high-income earners eligible for these subsidies.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirms the scale of the problem. Investigators submitted 24 fake applications for Obamacare subsidies — all were approved. The GAO also notes a surge in plans with zero annual claims to 11 million last year from 3 million to 4 million pre-2021.
Even the Washington Post, no ally to the right, says the subsidies are out of control. The Washington Post writes that it’s obvious that insurers are “taking advantage of a poorly designed system.” With none of the reforms necessary to address the rampant fraud and abuse, the proposed plan “should be a nonstarter.”
Schumer’s proposal simply fans the flames of wasteful spending for a program plagued by waste, inflation, and malfeasance.
Allowing the subsidies to expire as planned is the responsible course. The temporary pandemic justification is gone and so is any rationale for continuing this expensive, fraud-ridden program.
Senators should vote NO on Schumer’s proposed 3-year extension to the expiring Obamacare credits to prevent billions in additional costs, fraud, and waste being imposed on American taxpayers.
