Millions Could Lose Health Coverage If Congress Lets Affordable Care Act Tax Credits Expire

More than 300,000 Arizonans Rely on Tax Credits to Afford Monthly Premiums

PHOENIX — While Congressmen Juan Ciscomani and David Schweikert weigh whether to extend provisions of the 2017 GOP Tax Law next year, millions of Americans could lose their health care coverage if those same members of Congress let the Inflation Reduction Act's ACA premium tax credits expire.

The 2017 GOP Tax Law gave massive tax handouts to the wealthy and corporations while doing next to nothing for working Arizonans. Many of that law's provisions are set to expire at the same time next year as the Inflation Reduction Act’s ACA premium tax credits.

 Republicans in Congress have said numerous times that the Affordable Care Act and the Inflation Reduction Act could be on the chopping block. In fact, Republicans are already considering cuts to programs that tens of millions of Americans rely on to afford food and health care in order to fund extending cuts for the wealthy, including cuts toMedicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). 

Ciscomani and Schweikert must make a choice: vote to extend the 2017 tax handouts for corporations and billionaires, or vote to extend the ACA premium tax credits that help hardworking Arizonans afford expensive monthly health care premiums.

According to the Washington Post:

If subsidies fall to their pre-2021 level, experts say, many new subscribers would choose not to renew their coverage — the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted that 3.4 million more people would become uninsured — and many of them live in states that lean heavily Republican. Health policy research organization KFF said that, if the subsidy expansion expires, premiums would more than double in 12 heavily Republican states — including Texas, West Virginia and Alaska — while rising less sharply in many blue states...

The Republican Study Committee [that Schweikert and Ciscomani are members of] included ending the expanded subsidies in a document of its plans...

Letting the subsidy expansion expire could affect the marketplace as a whole, not just individual consumers. If the issue remains unresolved by the middle of next year, some insurers might leave the marketplace, expecting fewer customers the following year...

"Playing games with the health insurance market puts millions at risk of losing coverage," said Andrea Moreno, Executive Director of Honest Arizona. "Instead of giving another handout to billionaires and corporations, Schweikert and Ciscomani need to vote to extend the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits and protect Arizona families."

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