ATR: REJECT Schumer’s Obamacare Expansion

Today, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded a one-year extension of the COVID-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies as a condition to open the government.

ATR urges members of Congress to reject this absurd demand.

Extending the expanded Obamacare subsidies not only puts our country further in debt, but funnels taxpayer dollars straight to insurance companies, not patients, who currently have little incentive to keep their costs low. The expanded subsidies have encouraged rampant fraud and are putting taxpayers on the hook for high-income earners’ payments.

The only reason Democrats assert consumers need these subsidies is because the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the subsidies themselves have caused premiums to skyrocket. Obamacare has failed.

Thus, it is no surprise that Democrats are demanding that Republicans help them continue to hide these rising prices with subsidies. Of course, this would incentivize insurers to keep raising premiums, costing consumers more in the long-term… but why would the Left care about worsening the problem in the future if it helps them avoid accountability now?

To be clear, expanding Obamacare is not a “political win” for Republicans. It is a betrayal to their moderate and conservative base alike. At the very least, Democrats will never give a Republican who caves credit for doing so – it will always be framed as a win for the Left.

Longtime GOP voters, however, would have every reason to lose faith in a member who betrays something as foundational as not taking steps toward a socialist healthcare system.

Republicans must let the expanded Obamacare subsidies expire. The aftermath of Obamacare is a crime scene. No Republican should leave their fingerprints behind.

The expanded Obamacare subsidies have encouraged insurance companies to raise their premium prices. A CBO report confirmed that premiums for exchange plans are rising more quickly than originally anticipated. When the government subsidizes the cost of anything, sellers inevitably raise their prices. The government will pay for it, after all. As a result, the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on this expansion are going straight to insurers, not to patients. While some Americans may be concerned about premiums going up in the short term, removing the incentive for insurers to continue raising their prices will save patients money in the long run.

Because of these rising prices, the cost of the expanded Obamacare subsidies is massive. According to the Congressional Budget Office, expanding the subsidies would cost around $35 billion per year, or $350 billion over the next decade. As the Economic Policy Innovation Center detailed, “resulting increases in net interest costs would add another $64 billion, for a total cost of $448 billion over the FY 2026 to 2035 period.” The cost of premium tax credits was already colossal – costing taxpayers $1 trillion over 10 years. It is unacceptable for a “temporary” expansion to raise that cost by roughly 45 percent.

American taxpayers “accepted” these high costs because the expanded Obamacare subsidies were always supposed to be temporary. At the time they were passed, the American people were assured that the expanded premium tax credits were a necessary and temporary response to the global pandemic. Four years later, we have moved on from the pandemic, but taxpayers are still on the hook for rising premiums, including for those making over $500,000 per year.

A relatively low number of Americans – 6 percent – receive premium tax credits. As mentioned earlier, about 24 million people are enrolled in the Obamacare marketplace. Of those, roughly 21.8 million people receive PTCs. Thus, only around 6 percent of the U.S. population may find themselves directly affected by the expiration of these subsidies.

The PTC will still be intact for those making under 400 percent of the FPL: individuals making under $62,600 annually ($5,216 a month) or, for example, a household of four making under $128,600 annually ($10,716 a month). Notably, the standards for enrollment were quite generous to begin with.  

Despite the enrollment numbers being a relatively low percentage of the population, even that number should be taken with a grain of salt – lax verification during the Biden expansion enabled millions to qualify improperly. The Paragon Health Institute estimated that 6.4 million Americans are improperly enrolled in Obamacare exchanges, a number that surged by more than one-quarter from 2024 to 2025. This level of improper enrollment, which is likely an underestimation, will cost taxpayers up to $27 billion this year.

As Paragon details in their report, after the PTC expansion, there was a surge in enrollment and high-than-ever insurer profits, with many of these enrollees “ineligible, unaware they were signed up, or never [having] used their plan.” This mirrors Paragon’s research regarding phantom Obamacare enrollees, finding that “a staggering 40 percent of enrollees in 94 percent actuarial value silver plans and bronze plans had no medical claims in 2024.” No doctor visits, services received, or prescriptions filled.

ATR urges lawmakers to reject Schumer’s hostage-taking to extend the enhanced Obamacare subsidies.